All National Stereotypes | National Stereotypes (2024)

General Stereotypes

• Africa is often depicted as if it’s one big country instead of a continent. In fact: there are a lot of examples of fiction even inventing extra African countries. (See Bulungi.)
• The continent itself calls images of Darkest Africa with jungles, savanna, diamond mines, undiscovered civilizations or creatures, elephants, giraffes, okapis, gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons, meerkats, makis, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, lions, leopards, cheetahs, panthers, hyenas, jackals, ostriches, crocodiles, pythons, green and black mambas, tortoises, geckos, chameleons, antelopes, wildebeest, gazelles, water buffaloes, wart hogs, vultures, mosquitoes, flesh eating plants, etc. Usually whenever people visit Africa they almost trip over all these omnipresent animals, which they invariably always encounter at a dangerous moment. Luckily, they can always escape by swinging on suprisingly strong vines.
• Africa is generally assumed to be an entire continent full of black people. If there are whites they are always Great White Hunter or Mighty Whitey: there are no other options. Apparently all the Coloreds, Indians, Asians, and all the rest of them have vanished overnight.
• In addition, it’s a common stereotype that all black Africans essentially look like West Africans, with none of the variety in phenotypes found in Europe or Asia. This stereotype is especially common in the US, because it’s assumed that all Africans look like African Americans, who are mostly descended from West Africans. As a result, East and Northeast African phenotypes in particular are extremely rare in depictions of black Africans.
• Similarly: people seem to think that Africa is just jungles and savanna. That North Africa has none of these things is usually forgotten.
• Also, it’s often thought that most Africans still practice voodoo and/or nature religions, like primitive tribes used to do. In reality Christianity and especially Islam are the largest religions on the continent.
• Out-of-date, racist images of Africa that crop up a lot in old novels particularly, have their roots in colonial times (Ancient Africa). Black Africans are depicted as primitive, childlike, superstitious people who still worship idols, believe in witchcraft and voodoo and live in huts. They defend themselves with spears and shields. White colonists can easily trick them by selling them worthless junk in exchange for valuable items or scare them with modern technology.
  • Magical Negro: The tribe’s wizard is always a manipulative fraud wearing a huge imposing mask covering his true identity. He will usually be scaring his naïve tribesmen into turning against the Mighty Whitey visiting their town. When The Natives Are Restless some Jungle Drums will start playing.
  • Pygmy tribes are usually small, pathetic little dwarfs who are depicted as if they are actually children.
  • Black African tribes are often portrayed as if they are cannibals. They will catch the Bold Explorer and carry him along with his arms and legs tied to a pole. After arriving in their village they will put him in a large black cauldron for supper. When they escape they will Chased by Angry Natives.
  • Other stereotypical images are the woman with a lip plate in her mouth or a man with a bone sticking through his nose.
  • Stereotypical female black African depictions include the bare-breasted woman with large hanging breasts and enormous buttocks (examples of this stereotype are the 19th century sideshow attraction Saartjie Baartman and Robert Crumb’s comic strip character Angelfood Mcspade) or the woman who wears multiple rings around her giraffe-like neck. . Note this type of neck ornament is also common in Burma with women from the Kayan tribe, but is generally associated with Africa.
  • If they are not hunting wild animals they’ll be eating maniok. Their favorite pastime is playing the djembé while everyone dances and jumps around like crazy. When they cross a lake by pirogue they will be singing in unison while paddling.
    • Sometimes there actually is a white person living in the African woods. He or she is usually Raised by Wolves, apes or just Going Native. He/she will spent their pastime swinging from a vine, living in a Treehouse of Fun and protecting all animals from the evil poachers. If its a woman she will be a Jungle Princess dressed in a Fur Bikini. As always these white jungle people will be called “savage” despite actually being able to speak enough English to be understandable, wearing enough Loin Cloth to avoid the censors and having enough manners not to repulse the audiences. They will rule over the jungle animals and even the local black tribes, who in comparison will still be more primitive than our Mighty Whitey Nature Hero.
• More modern stereotypical images of black Africans are the starving little child and the mother with multiple starving kids with flies swarming all over them, probably in some sort of refugee camp or hospital. In fact, the words “hunger and drought” have almost become synonymous with Africa.
  • All Africans speak Pidgin English in popular fiction or talk in sentences like: “Me very afraid, bwana!”
  • To this day Africans are still portrayed as being laidback, not to say “lazy”, people. They take their time to do things and prefer sitting down under a palm tree. Especially the men are seen as a Lazy Husband who just sit there will their wives do all the work. Just like the siësta in Southern European countries this behaviour mostly stems from the hot African climate. In Western civilization where “time is money”, African laid back attitudes are seen as something to be ashamed of.
  • This is also where the idea of “backwards Africa” comes from. Most utilities found in the continent are very primitive and out-of-date. Black Africans are often portrayed as being too stupid or lazy to make something better or more useful out of them. Of course, not all Western countries really bother to provide them with better and more modern stuff anyway.
    • A bit Truth in Television is that several African countries are, in fact, not always that aware of modern Western society. The education in many African towns is bad or non-existant and their local governments don’t always provide their civilians with accurate and trustworthy knowledge and information about important issues.
  • This lack of proper public education also explains one of Africa’s largest problems: the spread of various deadly diseases which gave the continent another negative association. It sometimes seems Everything Is Trying to Kill You in Africa: AIDS, Ebola, malaria, yellow fever,…
  • Africa has a reputation for brutal and often crazy dictators who oppress and massacre their own citizens by the score. They will ususally be kept in power by Western governments to support their own benefits in the countries. Yet, just like the clichés about Latin America, most of these dictatorships are very short-term and one tyrant will quickly be replaced by another. If an African dictator is directly referenced it’s usually Idi Amin (Uganda), Bokassa (Central-Afrika) or Mobutu (Congo/Zaïre).
  • All African countries are constantly torn apart by tribal warfare between ill-disciplined thugs wielding machetes and AK-47’s and committing genocide. They will exploit young boys into becoming child soldiers and excess in gruesome murder, torture and rape crimes. This trope is usually thought of as applying specifically to sub-Saharan Africa (except for South Africa).
• Africans of any nationality are conspicuously absent from beat ‘em up videogames, especially as this medium is usually presented as some sort of tournament involving fighters from “all over the world”. This often leads to cries of ignorance and prejudice in fan-forums. Asian, American and European characters make up the lion’s share of characters and in the main beat ‘em up series, Street Fighter‘s Elena, a native of Kenya, is one of the few African fighters depicted. Arguably, this might be explained by Hollywood Atlas. Beat ‘em ups rely heavily on exploiting well-known National Stereotypes when presenting characters (especially the pioneering Street Fighter series), and for many people, African culture, iconography and the multitude of nationalities therein all blend into one big melange, which Elena, as a Savannah-dwelling, Masaii-inspired Kenyan covers off nicely. It’s far easier to design characters from Japan, China, England and Italy etc, because there are such distinct, iconically familiar, universally recognizable national character/appearance traits that can be referenced and parodied for these countries — put simply, most of the game-buying public could not tell the difference between Kenyan and Tanzanian culture.
• To conclude with a more joyful, yet very romanticized idea of Africa: archeologists widely see it as the birth place of mankind. Many prehistoric fossils of the first hominids have been found in Central Africa and indeed many tourists are attracted to Africa’s rural atmosphere, almost as if they are coming home. Typical images exploited by safari tourism are the sun rising above the equator, intense heat that makes the horizon appear to vibrate, elephants crossing the savannah and watching lions from the safety of your jeep.

North Africa

• Mostly many of the same desert clichés and sterotypes found in The Middle East. (See Asia)
  • The people of the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) tend to be lumped together by Eastern Arabs, which is kind of a shame. They are universally stereotyped as The Unintelligible, as their dialect is very hard to understand (foreigners should think of Russian with even more difficult consonants).^note They also get a fair amount of “Berber” stereotype mixed in, which is similar to that of Bedouin, only not Arab.

Algeria

• Best known for being a former French colony.
• Legion of Lost Souls: The French Foreign Legion is another legendary phenomenon associated with the country. Expect people with a Mysterious Past to enlist in said army, usually a Heartbroken Badass, political refugees and/or various rogues and scoundrels and the like. They are always depicted wearing white khepis while standing guard at lonely outposts in the Sahara. In real life, the Legion operates in a variety of environments and conflicts (such as French Indochina) and wears camouflage as needed.

Egypt:

• Ancient Egypt: If Egypt is shown in fiction, usually references are made Ancient Egypt: pyramids, mummies, sphinxes (like the one in Gizeh), ancient tombs, hieroglyphs, obelisks, sarcophaguses, pharaohs (expect references to Cleopatra VII, Cheops, Ramses II, Nefertete, Tutankhamun or Amon), and characters “walking like an Egyptian”.
  • Pyramid Power: Characters will usually discover an ancient yet undiscovered tomb built in honor of some pharaoh. The entire treasure will be present, but when they try to leave they are threatened by the “Curse of the Mummy”. Either a mummy rises from its grave or they all fall ill or die in mysterious circ*mstances.
  • Egyptians are also frequently portrayed as hypnotists.
• The Nile and the Suez Canal might get referenced too.
• In Arabic countries themselves Egyptians are seen as laid-back. They are always cracking very lowbrow, overstated jokes about everything; Pungeon Master also comes into play, as does Boisterous Bruiser (without the alcohol, most of the time). They are often considered Book Dumb, but also quick-witted when it comes to solving practical problems. Nevertheless proud—if sometimes vaguely—of Egypt’s ancient heritage, as evidenced by the phrase Masr omm ad-dunya (“Egypt [is] the mother of the world”); this has occasionally given others in the Arab world indigestion. Historically also seen as kind of submissive; this was proven wrong in the most epic way imaginable.
• Egyptian women have a reputation as Belly Dancers; Egyptians kind of brought this one on themselves, as Egyptian movies (the most popular ones in the Arab world) always have one.
  • To give you an idea about how Egyptians view themselves and their pervasive film industry, these are some commercials from an Egyptian movie channel (based for whatever reason in Canada), featuring a wannabe auteur, a sex-obsessed and lowbrow film executive, and the scripts of several top-notch American films. Enjoy.

Libya

• From 1969 tot 2011 the country was most famous for dictator Muammar Gaddafi and support of terrorism. Expect references to Libya from that period to be mostly references to Gaddafi. For instance: a Libyan character will be wearing the same Cool Shades he did.

Morocco

• Morocco, with its deserts and many bazaars, is used as a template for “Middle Eastern” settings, and almost any Arab country (or generically “Middle Eastern” country) depicted in a live-action movie will almost always be filmed in Morocco. It has a big enough desert to build sets in (far away enough from major cities), while being secular enough that nobody will come and arrest you for having alcohol and girls in Ms. Fanservice outfits. This is even referenced in films like Casablanca and Naked Lunch, where Morocco is depicted as a place where you can enjoy the excitement of participating in illegal activities.

Sudan

• Only known in the West for genocide and arresting people who give teddy bears Muslim names. It is now divided by the Muslim Sudan and the Christian South Sudan.

Central Africa Congo

• A war-torn country where all sorts of atrocities happen every day.
• Literature lovers know it for being the setting to Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness.
• Today it’s best known for being a former Belgian colony, former dictator Seko Seko Mobutu (and his leopard skin hat) and the country Tintin visited in Tintin in the Congo.

Ethiopia

• Ethiopia‘s pretty much only known in the West now for its horrific famines, thanks to that particularly brutal one it suffered through in the 1970s and ’80s that led to Live Aid, Band Aid, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, etc. Otherwise it’s lumped in with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in terms of being thought of as a heavily pagan, juju spirit-believing culture, although Orthodox Christianity was introduced in the 4th century, Judaism even earlier, and there is a decently large Muslim population.

Kenya

• Kenyans are known for being exceptionally fast runners and for the massive abundance of stereotypical African wildlife (Lions, Elephants, and Giraffes, oh my!) that live in the Masai Mara, a nature reserve that crosses the border between Kenya and Tanzania, where it is known as the Serengeti. Oh and, speaking of Masai, every Kenyan who isn’t dressed for a marathon at the moment, is dressed in red cloth and carries a spear.

Nigeria

• Nigerians/West Africans in general, are known across Africa as Internet scammers and people involved in Black Magic or Voodoo., whom you better not to mess with.
• Music fans known it solely for being the birth place of Fela Kuti.

Ruanda & Burundi

• Best known for the 1994 genocide between the Hutu and Tutsi population, which inspired Hotel Rwanda.

Sierra Leone

• In a constant state of civil war for control over the diamond mines, with rebels hacking peoples limbs off.

Somalia

• The country is known for having the most territory in East Africa (the states are kind of divided).
• Somalian people are usually portrayed as being very tall and very skinny. In the rest of Africa they are stereotyped as being not real “Africans”, nor not looking black enough, under the assumption that they descend from Arabians and other multiracial invaders. In reality most people in Somalia have lived in the Horn for Africa for thousands of years. And surprisingly given their location on a major trade route (between the Middle East and North Africa on one hand and southern Africa, India, and East Asia on the other), they do show surprisingly little genetic admixture◊
• Historically Somalia is known being the first people to domesticate the camel, and spread it all round the Middle East and Africa.
• In more recent times the country is mostly known for the twenty year old civil war that ravaged everything and created an absence of a functioning central government during that time.Somalia is often said to be a real-life example of anarchism. Depending on the writer’s political views, this situation will be heavily romanticized or unbelievably grim.
• Somalis are mostly depicted as being Muslims with many children. Four children is a small family to them. So many Somalis have fled the problems in their country and migrated to Europe that they’re seen as a problem by some people there.
• Since the 2000s Somalia is seen as an increasingly poor, backwards and primitive country in the West. Women are still forced to undergo inhuman circumcisions at a young age and when you travel by sea pirates will attack your ship.
• On a more positive note: Somalia has also produced many famous and beautiful female models.

Southern Africa Uganda

• During the 1970s it was most famous for dictator Idi Amin.

South Africa

• From 1948 until 1994 Apartheid used to be this country’s most notorious aspect, see for instance the Spitting Image song I Never Met A Nice South African. Even though that system has been abolished it remains associated with the country.
  • Amoral Afrikaner: White upper class South Africans are either “Rooineks” (British white South Africans) or “Afrikaners” (die-hard Nationalists and apartheid supporters). Usually they will wear khaki shirts and live in a big mansion or a hovel, lamenting the good old days when apartheid was still in effect. They are all viciously racist and bluntly call their servants “boys” and all black people “kaffirs”. Middle class apparently doesn’t exist, even though in reality South Africa is the most middle-class African country. There also seem to exist no white South Africans of anything other than British or Dutch descent in popular culture, despite the fact that there are also a lot of people with Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Jewish and Lebanese ancestry.
  • South African TV characters in non-South African programmes are disproportionately white. This has a partial justification because of apartheid — whites are more likely to be able to afford to leave the country. Still, said justification is getting pretty dated by now, given the size of the non-white middle class these days (a recent news story claimed that more black than white folks were emigrating, make of that what you will). White South Africans will always be racist; also, stinking rich. This is probably because of The Law of Conservation of Detail. South Africa is where most white sub-Saharan Africans are from; if writers were looking for a black African character they would pick some other African country.
  • In post-Apartheid media, white South African men will almost always be mercenaries. This has a degree of truth to it, as the first PMC, Executive Outcomes, was founded by a former South African special forces officer and most of its personnel came from the apartheid-era military, which downsized significantly after 1994. This is a large part of the Amoral Afrikaner trope.
• South Africans will always speak Afrikaans or speak mangled English where they swallow certain syllables, over-emphasise the rolled “r”, or flatten vowel sounds. It’s always important to drop the word “wildebeest” at one point.

Zimbabwe

• In the years when it was still called “Rhodesia” it was best known for being Cecil Rhodes’ former colony and as an apartheid state not too different from South Africa.

North America

The Arctic

• Often depicted as if it’s one large continent, similar to Antarctica, while in reality the Arctic, or “North Pole” is the name for several regions comprised of Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, and even Scandinavia and Northern Russia.
• Eskimo Land: The Arctic will mostly be inhabitated by the Inuit people, still nicknamed by the politically incorrect name “Eskimo” in many countries. Usually they will still be portrayed as if modern age and technology never set in. They will all wear parkas, carve trinkets, and permanently live in igloos, while in reality igloos were temporary shelters, not actual houses. When they travel they use a sled, pulled by huskies, and go fishing in a canoe while trying to harpoon every animal in their vicinity. When not eating fish, they will consume whale blubber or cod-liver oil.
  • Several outdated traditions or already debunked, but permissive urban legends about these people will also be shown. For instance, they will be kissing/greeting one another by rubbing their noses against each other. They supposedly have Wikipedia: Eskimo words for snow an unusually large number of words for snow, which is simply untrue. Whenever one of their people is terminally ill or very old they will put him or her in a canoe and sent him off unto the wild ocean to die on ice floes.
  • The men will usually have names like “Nuk Nuk” or “Nanook”, in reference to the famous documentary Nanook of the North. The documentary was heavily fictionalized and the name an invention: the man was actually called Allakariallak. Nanook/nanuq means “polar bear”
• The Arctic itself will often be simply one blank white landscape, full of ice and snow. No plant life is to be seen, while in reality the Arctic has lots of vegetation.
• Various polar animals will have a cameo: huskies, polar bears, polar foxes, lemmings, seals, walruses, whales, orcas, belugas, narwhals,… and inaccurately, penguins. Penguins only live on the South Pole and not on the North Pole. Sometimes Eskimos themselves are depicted living on the South Pole, which is again wrong for the same reason.
• Expect a reference to the fact that there is no sun for months, yet “aurora borealis” (“northern lights”) can be seen in the sky, no matter what time of the year it is. As a result, the Inuit will go to sleep “for several months” in their igloo, as if they are physically able to have a winter sleep like animals do.
• And, of course, the Arctic is Santa Claus’ permanent residence!

Canada

• See Canada, Eh? for the main page about stereotypical portrayals of Canada.
• Outside North America, people often confuse Canadians with Americans, or when they speak French, with Frenchmen. To be fair, even Americans sometimes forget that Canada also has a large French-speaking population.
• Canadians are often depicted as Mounties, hockey and/or curling players, lumberjacks, or wildlife hunters.
• The country is full of snow, pine woods, moose, bears, and beavers.
• Some architectural monuments that need to be shown whenever Canada is mentioned are the CN Tower and the Skydome. The only other locations that exist in popular culture are Toronto, Quebec, Winnipeg, Nova Scotia, British Colombia, Vancouver, and Montréal.
  • Ontario is best known for the Niagara Falls, which also covers a part of New York, USA. The waterfall is famous in popular culture for having daredevils crawl inside barrels and jump off the falls afterwards.
• Canadians are obsessed with maple leaves and maple syrup. They all eat Kraft dinner (macaroni and cheese).
• All Canadian men listen to Neil Young, Rush, and Nickelback, while all Canadian women listen to Joni Mitchell, Céline Dion, and/or Justin Bieber.
• Canada, Eh?: The Bob & Doug Mckenzie sketches from SCTV cemented the idea that all Canadians say “eh?” as a Verbal Tic. Another Canadian linguistic stereotype is the word “aboot” instead of “about”.
• Canadians are often portrayed as being exceptionally polite. The phrase “Welcome to Canada. It’s nice up here, eh?” pretty much defines this stereotype.
  • In many countries frequented by American tourists, the advice “pretend you’re Canadian” is often given.
  • Canadians also tend to be portrayed as a lot less jingoistic than Americans. Quebec separatism may be mentioned, but Western separatism might as well not exist.
• Québécois, on the other hand, tend to be portrayed by English speakers as being a bunch of separatist French Jerks, and are portrayed in France as being backward colonialists that aren’t True Frenchmen. That is, of course, when English-speaking foreigners remember that Canada also has a large French-speaking population.
• Almost inevitably, the Canadian will be white, and if they aren’t French will have English or Scottish family name.
• Interestingly enough, Canada is often portrayed as being more primitive and close to nature than the “modern” United States. Yet, most of their laws (secularism, gay marriage, universal healthcare, mosaic culture, etc.) are far more progressive and liberal than those of the United States.
• During the 1960s and 1970s, Canada was also known for harboring many young Americans who dodged the draft.

The United States See also Acceptable Political Targets, America Takes Over the World, Eagleland, and Only In America. The United States in general

• To many people (and not only Americans themselves), the United States are seen as the most important place in the world. Whenever the continent “America” is mentioned, people are usually solely referring to the United States. If you can become rich and famous in the U.S., then you have really made it. For many Americans, the idea of becoming rich, famous, and successful is almost an obsession. From becoming the “prom king and queen”, to making it big in Hollywood, over becoming a billionaire to even entering the White House. Americans always see everything “big!”, are in constant competition with others, and feel that “time is money”. It comes to no surprise that fast food was invented in the U.S.A.
  • Everything Is Big in Texas might as well generally be called Everything Is Big in America: houses, cars, steaks, hamburgers, beers, guns, movies, parades, advertising boards, skyscrapers, movies, religious devotion, celebrities, the presidential elections… it all has to be huge, grand and larger than life. To foreigners this often comes across as having no sense of humility or moderation. Everything, from the wage slips to the food servings to the ferocity with which people defend their ideals and views, seems much more exaggerated in America than it needs to be. Though, there is a geographical explanation for this: after Russia, Canada, and China, the U.S.A. is the largest country in the world in terms of geographic area. This is already something that’s difficult to imagine when you’re living in a smaller country. Americans think “big” because they can! There is so much space in the U.S.A., compared to the more crowded and suburbanized countries in, for instance, Europe. Taking a plane to visit another town or state within the same country is very normal.
  • A well-known European joke has a European guide show some American tourists around in the city. One American isn’t particularly impressed, though. He keeps complaining about the small size of all the monuments compared to those in the U.S.A. Near the end of the tour, the European guide really gets fed up with this. Then the American notices another building and once again boasts: “Look at that! In the U.S.A., that pathetic small building would be much bigger!” To which the guide replies: “That wouldn’t surprise me, because that’s a mental institution.”
  • Patriotic Fervor: American patriotism is also something that raises eyebrows in other countries: school children being forced to salute the American flag every morning and memorize the pledge of allegiance, people rising in unison to sing along with the national anthem whenever it’s played, controversy over burning flags,… Though other countries are not immune to nationalistic pride, American patriotism feels very creepy in foreign eyes.
    • Self-deprecating comedy also doesn’t seem as common in the USA as in other countries. Whenever someone pokes fun at the good ol’ USA he always has to reassure the audience that he really likes the country in the end. Similarly many foreigners have had situations where they make a joke at their own (country’s) expense and Americans in their company take pity on them rather than laugh along. Almost as if they assume the person lacks confidence. Most American comedy, both stand-up as well as sitcoms and comedies, seem more at ease insulting others, usually targeting physical features. This goes from the Your Momma jokes to the traditional roasting events. Laughing with America or criticizing the core idea of the American Dream is a touchy subject in the USA. A majority can still feel very offended, even if the satire or criticism was done by an American.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Americans are generally painted as completely ignorant of the rest of the world. American tourists may visit other countries, but are more interested in shopping and souvenirs than authentic culture, and are always rude and condescending to “the natives”.
• Positive stereotypes about the United States are generally that people see it as a “land of opportunities”. The pioneer spirit is still strong and people have the feeling that even “an average guy or gal” can make it there. Foreigners also have the impression that, because of this, everybody in the U.S.A. is incredibly wealthy. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
  • This also explains why white Americans are often depicted as filthy rich, cigar-smoking businessmen with too much money to spend. If you have to believe a lot of foreign fiction, all American business people work in skyscrapers. Stories about Hollywood stars living in mansions with a swimming pool and a private jet also contribute to this idea. As do American TV soaps, sitcoms, and films where the characters usually live in very spacious houses with many modern vicinities.
• Another positive image about the U.S.A. is that other countries (used to) look up to it. The United States was the first colony to become independent and introduce the first foundation of a modern democratic constitution. This was an inspiration for many other countries who became independent in the centuries after. The American constitution guarantees liberties and freedom of speech that go further than most other countries, even democratic ones. Thus, the U.S.A. became “the land of the free”, symbolized by the Statue of Liberty, which welcomed all immigrants who fled from persecution in their home country.
  • Americans are often seen as people who vocally try to defend their own rights, according to what they claim is in the Constitution. Usually in combination with some Badass Boast, Precision F-Strike and/or degrading comment: “Hey listen up, pal…!” This is also in part where the idea of both their stereotypical co*cksure machoism and arrogance hail from.
    • America is infamous for its many frivolous lawsuits. A common stereotype is that Americans will seize every opportunity to sue a company or other person for a ridiculous amount of money, because “the law is the law”.
    • The Grim Reaper complains in Monty Python’s: The Meaning of Life: “Shut up! Shut up, you American. You always talk, you Americans, you talk and you talk and say ‘Let me tell you something’ and ‘I just wanna say this'”.
  • Divided States of America: Still, many foreigners have the impression that Americans don’t care enough about their national politics, mostly because — in contrast to other modern democracies — they only have two significant parties to vote into presidency. As a result, most Americans don’t bother to vote, which wouldn’t be such a problem if it weren’t for the fact that the entire world is affected by their voting decisions. Since World War II, America’s influence on world politics and economy has been so dominant that many people across the world always hope that the American people vote wisely instead of going for the most superficial or politically extreme candidate.
• Another image many foreigners have of Americans is that they are extremely extroverted, yet appear to be very genteel. They will act very friendly and enthusiastic, smile, say hello and goodbye (“Oh, hiiiiiii!”, “Have a nice day!”,…), show involvement in what you say (“Oh rrrrrreallly?”, “Oh my goooooood!”), but it comes across as if they don’t mean it half of the time.
• A stereotype about Americans that has gotten under a lot of strain since the second half of the 20th century is that of the “heroic American”. During the 19th and early 20th century, Americans were depicted as cowboys who save the day, a stereotype fed by Buffalo Bill, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Clint Eastwood. Powerful comic book superheroes like Superman, Batman, Popeye, and Spider-man also fueled this image, fighting for “truth, justice, and the American way.” Especially older generations tend to see Americans as noble, self-reliant individuals who take no nonsense, grab matters into their own hands, act quick and efficient, and save everyone. This is also the idea most Americans (like to) have about themselves. Even some of their politicians, who see the world as a place divided in good (our side) and evil (the other side).
  • Americans helped Europe win two world wars, but people usually forget that the U.S collaborated with other countries to defeat the Axis. Many war movies and documentaries paint the wrong impression that America won these wars singlehandedly. After World War II, the United States were generally seen as liberators by all the countries that had been suppressed by the Nazis or Japanese: America Saves the Day. This led to an internationally positive view of the U.S. where many people across the world gladly embraced American products like Coca Cola, chewing gum, large cars, and Hollywood films. As the Truman doctrine was introduced, the American government started sending troops to every major international conflict, thus coining the nickname “the policeman of the world.” However, during the 1960s at the height of the Vietnam War, American’s foreign policy was criticized by other countries. In later decades, America’s involvement in many wars, rebellions, and other conflicts became controversial, usually because it seemed to be a greater benefit to their own government and multinationals than the actual countries themselves. To this day, America’s heroic image has remained polarized. A considerable quantity people across the globe hate the U.S.A. solely based on the actions of their government, their powerful multinationals, and their aggressive marketing campaigns. (See America Saves the Day, America Takes Over the World, Yanks with Tanks and America Wins the War), though at the same time they still use American products and enjoy American films and TV series. Also, the USA isn’t the only (Western) country with internationally powerful multinationals and governments who sponsor dictatorships and engage in wars.
  • Thanks to the numerous The Wild West legends and movie westerns, the country is still seen as Americans Are Cowboys. If a character in foreign fiction is depicted as being American, he is either a cowboy or at least wearing a cowboy hat.
  • American Gun Politics: Even though the U.S. isn’t the only country where carrying firearms is legal, the image of the “gun-obsessed American” is more common than with other nationalities. Many American citizens appear to be extensions of cowboys and will proudly and sometimes paranoidly carry a gun everywhere they go, even if there is no danger about. This “gun obsession” may have also been popularized by numerous westerns and violent Hollywood action movies where the cool ones always have large guns. Similar to a typical Hollywood scenario, American real life crime fighting is often presented as if you just have to hunt and shoot down “the bad guy” and every problem is solved.
    • Foreign media sometimes gives the wrong impression that all American gun owners are mostly conservative Republican rednecks, while in reality even liberal-minded and otherwise not-that-macho people may own a gun or more for self-defense.
• In other countries, Americans are often seen as people who are scared out of proportion of anything. Historically, they have been frightened of religious persecution, Native Americans, Afro-Americans, communists, hippies, and terrorists. In order to protect themselves, they will carry a gun everywhere they go and arm their homes into small fortresses. As the documentary Bowling for Columbine suggested, many American TV shows and films scare their viewers so much that they will buy and do anything to feel safe. Some of the stuff American citizens are frightened about are fears you would associate with a primitive Third World country, not a Western industrialized democracy: Satan, going to Hell, socialism, atheism, sex, and human nudity.

  • American Churches: Outside the USA, many people have the impression that all Americans are devoutly obsessed with God and Jesus and will do anything to force their conservative ideals on others. The amount of cults and/or spin-offs of Christianity in the USA is amazing, from Mormonism over Scientology to Christian Science. Even the national pledge of allegiance is held to “one nation under God” and the US president will frequently conclude his speeches with the phrase “May God bless America.” Compared to other Western countries, a large amount of Americans frequently visit their local religious community, pray, believe every word in their religious books literally, and get scared or angry when confronted with someone who merely suggests that Church and State should remain separate. Despite having some Truth in Television, many foreign news casts and documentaries have a tendency to focus on the most extreme pious, intolerant, corrupt, money grabbing, near insane God fearing fundamentalists instead of the average, moderate, non-judgemental church goers. Historically, the United States didn’t have a health care system like other democratic Western nations have, so being part of a religious community often used to be the only way to get aid from your local neighborhood during sour times.

  • Only In America: In foreign eyes, Americans seem to have very odd, almost contradictive repressive attitudes towards children, adolescents, and even adults. Owning guns is O.K. Praising the military is wonderful. Watching extremely violent, bloody, and gory films is an innocent pastime. But the mere sight of a bare breast or genitalia is a gigantic Berserk Button, despite the fact that gun violence is more harmful than human nudity. Countless American films, series, and public broadcasts try to discourage people from having premarital sex. Yet, at the same time, American media desperately tries to suggest nudity and sex, but always just shy away from actually showing it. It’s almost tempting fate. The subject is so often censored and avoided in the USA that whenever a glimpse of nudity or sex does appear in a film or TV series, it immediately causes excitement and/or controversy. A lot of it hardly bats an eye in Europe, where violence is the most common subject for censorship, especially regarding minors.
    • Another example is the legal drinking age in the U.S.A. of 21 years old compared to the age of 16 in European countries. And again while being one of the biggest beer drinkers in the world who promote ‘having a beer with your buddies’ constantly in the media!
    • From the South Park episode “I’m A Little Bit Country”: “Imagine an entire country founded on saying one thing and then doing the other.”
• Outside the U.S., a stereotypical image of the dumb, fat, lazy, ignorant, self-important, decadent, prudish, and clueless white American exists. Most of these images are based on American fast food culture which has spawned a lot of morbidly obese people. Of course, in foreign countries sitcom characters like Archie Bunker, Al Bundy, Homer Simpson, and Peter Griffin are often seen as representative of the typical American.

  • Americans only guzzle down unhealthy food, including (but not limited to) hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, burritos, deep pan pizzas, barbecue ribs, potato chips and similar crunchy snacks, fried chicken, turkey, chilli, chocolate bars, cookies, doughnuts, ice cream, apple pie and drink either soda, cola, or beer. They only visit snack bars, all night dining restaurants and fast food chains.
  • It really doesn’t help that Adam Richman’s Man v. Food is widely screened outside the USA and serves to confirm the widely-held notion that a majority of Americans are obese, waddling gutbuckets. Even the standard portion of whatever foodstuff Adam is sampling is vastly spilling-off-the-plate larger than a comparable eatery in, say, Britain, would serve. And Adam himself visibly gains a lot of weight over the course of the series…

• American Accents and Stock American Phrases: In foreign fiction all Americans speak with a Texan accent and in a nasal brawl. They will use slang expressions like: “hi”, “hey”, “yeah”, “O.K.”, “howdy”, “cool”, “wow”, “awesome”, “gross”,… and I’m like…”, “goddamn”, “oh my god”, “jesus!”, … and words like “buddy”, “pal” and “dude”. Afro-Americans will speak in jive.
• Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names: Outside the US, particularly from a UK/AUS point of view, there are names that are thought of as being quintessentially American-esque. Suitably macho, jock names likes “Chad”, “Todd”, “Brad”, etc. for boys, and cutesy names like “Tiffany”, “Candy”, or “Britney” for girls are great examples, and if Americans are spoofed in media produced outside the US, you can bet a name like the above will be selected. If you tell someone from outside of America that your name is ‘Randy’, expect raised eyebrows (especially in Britain). Americans are also known for sometimes having rather an ”interesting” taste in names, often striving for something “unique” rather than traditional — one only has to watch American talk-shows to see guests with names like “Jaxxon”, “Sharpay”, and “Sharadiant”. Even dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist conservatives like Sarah Palin exhibit a penchant for rather strange names, with her children — Bristol, Piper, Track, Willow, and Trig…

  • The Pot Hole above links to Awesome McCoolname, but they also sometimes come across abroad more like Who Names Their Kid “Dude”?.

  • In foreign fiction, all American men will be called Joe, Hank, Al, Barney, Chuck, Lou, Jim, Bob, Tex, Donald, or Jack. They will preferably be The All-American Boy.
    • American women generally come in four flavors: A Fat Slob like their male counterpart, a young Dumb Blonde who’s extremely slu*tty, bossy and always wanting attention, a soccer mom (which usually overlaps with the first), or a docile 1950’s House Wife.
• America Takes Over the World: Thanks to Hollywood, American TV shows and the Internet virtually everybody in the world with access to modern media is familiar with many aspects of American culture, even those who never visited the country in their entire life. To name an example: the USA is the only nation in the world where foreigners may be able to name some of the states, solely because they have heard them mention so often in films and TV series (try to do the same for Australia, Canada, France, England or China and all you get is a blank stare.) Naturally the global dominance of America’s aggressive marketing has also caused criticism in other countries. Numerous foreigners fear that American corporations destroy all the authentic and picturesque traditions of their own cultures. Many children and teenagers across the world have picked up American slang expressions like “O.K.”, “yeah”, “oh my god!” and “cool” in their own everyday speech. Even if they don’t speak English! They all gladly embrace American popular culture, merchandising and consumerism and dismiss their own country’s traditions as uncool or uninteresting. In some countries like France and Germany there is even a tendency to protect their own language by dubbing all American series and films on TV and forcing radio stations to play a majority of music in their own native tongue. To snobbish people the USA seems to lack any actual art or sophistication and imps centuries behind the cultural traditions of other continents. But how could it be otherwise, they say, if more government spending is used for the military and college sports than the American public school system?. Everything made in U.S.A. seems to be campy, decadent, unoriginal, dumbed down, overcommercialized kitsch only created to serve the ”almighty American dollar”. This image is particularly influenced by the power of huge multinationals like Disney, Coca Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, General Motors, MTV, Microsoft and Apple who appear to be everywhere. Hollywood and Beverly Hills dominate movie and TV screens and give us dumb and shallow blockbuster movies, campy soap operas and sitcoms with laugh tracks. All American pop music is bland, watered down and appeals to cheap emotions only, without any authentic appeal or artistic vision. The USA seems to have no philosopical or literary tradition of any note, except infantile superhero comics. Literature fans still wait for the Great American Novel to be written. Their culinary tradition is downgraded by their tendency for fast food and soft drinks. If snobbish foreigners really want to point out what makes America’s idea of culture so different they tend to point at stuff like Disneyland, Las Vegas, the Playboy mansion, pink limousines, shallow beauty contests and phony award shows. In reality, of course, not all Americans enjoy this stuff. The USA is not even the only country with multinationals or shoddy unsophisticated stuff. And there are enough Americans who have made and endorsed art, education and technology of a more sophisticated and less commercialized nature. Many American film classics are internationally respected for being great works of art. Jazz is widely seen as the truest and most unique American art form and one could argue that even country, blues, rock, soul and hiphop have something authentic and original in their roots. The Great American Novel may not have been written yet, but there have been some strong contenders for that title up to this point.
  • From the Simpsons episode “30 Minutes Over Tokyo”, when the family visits an American themed restaurant in Japan

  Waiter:: Don’t ask me; I don’t know anything! I’m product of American education system. I also build poor-quality cars and inferior-style electronics.

  Homer: [cackles] Oh, they got our number!

  • Foreign audiences associate American media with big budget spectacle. Consider the fact that Hollywood is the only place in the world where millions of dollars are used to make films and TV shows about sensational topics. And mostly because they can export it to the rest of the world, even if fails to make a profit in the U.S. During the first half of the 20th century, westerns were their most succesful international export product. Since the second half of that century, it’s mostly blockbuster action movies with long fight sequences, spectacular explosions, and gratuitous bullet rains.
  • American Television Stations: Though most people in the world watch a lot of television, Americans tend to be stereotyped as obsessive TV watchers more often than other countries. Possibly because so many films and TV series are made in the U.S.A., but also because there are so many different channels. It seems as if there’s so many airtime to fill that producers just throw in any soap opera, drama series, comedy program, talk show, movie, TV movie, reality show, animated cartoon series, or religious show they can cobble together. Only to have them interrupted by long commercial breaks every seven minutes. The amount of re-runs is staggering and has caused many Americans to know a lot of films and TV episodes by heart.
  • American news programs also come across as very biased and sensationalistic propaganda tools for either the government or the political party in the opposition.
  • Similarly, the tendency towards Americanization also irks many people across the world. Stories of foreign origin are often changed to appeal to an American audience. This in itself isn’t that strange — other countries may do it, too — but when the United States does it it usually goes too far. The setting of a foreign story is completely changed to a typical American town so that American audiences won’t feel too alienated. Characters will be replaced by typical American everyday men and women who speak in hip slang. If some of the foreign elements are kept they are often reduced to being stereotypes, like, for instance, a Funny Foreigner whose English and strange, exotic manners are obviously out of place compared to our all-American protagonists. In general, the entire tone of the adaptation feels very dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Subtle touches, authentic atmosphere, meaningful dialogue, controversial elements, political, cultural, and historical references are all removed, because producers assume that most Americans will be unable to understand or handle it. A complex plot will be simplified and the trailers for American audiences will focus more on low-brow comedy, explosions and violent action sequences. What non-Americans tend to oversee is that not all American audiences are in favor of these “Americanized” watered down versions.
    • This is actually done to appeal to overseas audiences as much as domestic ones, as in recent years blockbuster films have done tremendous business in foreign countries, in some cases blockbuster films actually do better overseas then in the U.S. The line of thought seems to be that generalizing something to be based in the USA rather than elsewhere may appeal to everybody, rather than alienate others. Of course, this often backfires too.
  • America and especially Los Angeles are also infamous for loving and celebrating pop culture beyond belief. Theme parks, midnight movies, drive-ins, TV marathons based on a particular film genre, fan clubs, cult classics, geeky fan conventions,… all originated in the US. Americans really enjoy everything that’s campy and bizarre, no matter how dumb, shallow, bad, or lousy it might be. People gather around with friends to watch their favorite films or TV episodes for the zillionth time. They will dress up as their favorite fictional characters for Halloween. Hosts of horror movie themed TV shows will present the film of the week in costume. Fans will buy or trade issues or rare bootlegs to add to their proud collection. T-shirts and posters are created around certain artists, characters or quotes. Other countries have started following this phenomenon in recent times, but still the sheer fun and excitement built around celebrating certain franchises, films, TV series, cartoons, comic strips, video games, Internet series, or musical artists can only be experienced full in the US. The only downside of this behaviour is that some people have the impression that Americans live too much in these fake made in Hollywood fantasies and base their entire world view on that.
  • The USA also has a close association with comic strips and animated cartoons. Despite not being the inventor of these media they did popularize and commercialize it globally. The USA has a broad variety in comic book genres, but still Superhero comics are often regarded as the most typical American. Typical in the sense that these superheroes are well known across the globe, but more thanks to movie adaptations than the actual comics, and thus only seem extremely popular in the USA itself. Foreigners will often mock superhero stories for being nothing more than naïve, childish and formulaic tales about some caped crusader with omnious Stock Super Powers, gained from some absurd incident during his youth. The character will typically be running or flying around in a Paper-Thin Disguise and beating up ridiculous supervillains, while shouting badass lines. As usual he will triumph in the end, because, after all, he has super powers, so how could he be beaten? Especially in Europe readers can’t relate to these heroic characters and prefer their own, more down to earth comic strips series about everyday people. This also explains why American comic strips and cartoons about identifiable ordinary pitiful losers, such as Peanuts, Donald Duck and The Simpsons have always been far more succesful in Europe.
• In (beat ‘em up) videogames, American fighters (generally) come in one of two flavours, adhering to the distinct types presented by the Eagleland trope: Type 1 examples will often positively portray the all-American hero, and include patriotic, military powerhouse Guile of Street Fighter Fame, who has the Stars & Stripes tattooed to both shoulders, as well as the Hot-Blooded, cheerfully friendly Terry Bogard from The King of Fighters. Felicia from Darkstalkers also (arguably) represents Type 1, being a friendly, caring sort who wants nothing more than to make it big on Broadway.
  • Type 2 examples are more numerous, the most obvious being Rufus of Street Fighter fame, who is morbidly obese, arrogant, very dim, chats absolute crap and has moves with sci-fi names (Galactic Tornado, Space Opera Symphony). Poison, also of Street Fighter (originally Final Fight) fame is very much Type 2, and is presented as overtly sexual, sleazy, sassy, and obsessed with money. In Rival Schools, one of the teams is made up of three American exchange students who sum up Type 2 almost completely; There’s Roy, an arrogant, xenophobic Jerkass, Tiffany an outrageously costumed, ditzy cheerleader complete with Valley Girl expressions and pneumatic boobs, and finally Boman — a preacher in training. A good Mixed Flavour Type example is Ken Masters of Street Fighter fame, who is definitely co*cky and brash, but is also an honourable person and shown to deeply care about his friends and family.
• When playing sports: all Americans will be playing baseball, American football, or basketball, usually with some cheerleaders jumping on the side. All these sports originated in the United States and remain far more popular than soccer, which is universally beloved in every country, except in the U.S, where many of the worlds’ most iconic soccer players are almost obscure.
• If you have to emphasize that you’re in the United States, don’t forget to reference the following clichés: the bald eagle, apple pie, baseball, basketball, American football, a ticker-tape parade, corn, (Thanksgiving) turkeys, skyscrapers, prairies, coyotes, canyons, the Star Spangled Banner, Mount Rushmore, The White House, the Statue of Liberty, the Hollywood sign, Jazz, Blues, Bluegrass, Gospel, Country Music, Frank Sinatra, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, Hip Hop, a fast food chain (preferably McDonald’s), Coca Cola, large cars driving over deserted roads, hamburgers, hot dogs, cowboys, Native Americans, and Mickey Mouse.

African-Americans

• Old stereotypes show them as slaves, working in cotton fields and singing bluesy songs. If they are a bit better off they are portrayed as servants, butlers, cooks, shoe shiners, or ”Mammy” maids. They enjoy eating watermelons and/or chickens or playing dice games. Typical for those times they are depicted as being lazy, dumb, superstitious, primitive, or overly submissive (“Yes suh, no ma’m”) to their white superiors and scared of ghosts. If a black character is joyful, he is usually an Uncle Tom or Uncle Remus type of character.
• Modern stereotypes depict them as either being jazz musicians, gospel choir singers, baptists with loud and punctuated speech, basketball players, dancers, stand-up comics, rappers, soul singers with large Afro-hair, gang members, pimps, and prostitutes. They always talk in jive and are usually cool and sassy.
• Throughout most of the 19th and 20th century, the USA was depicted in foreign popular culture as a place where all white men were racists and/or members of the Ku Klux Klan who oppressed or lynched black people. Often the American president himself would be depicted as a white “nigg*r-hating” asshole. In more recent times, this idea has died out, save for occassional news stories about white Police Brutality against black people and getting away with it without legally being persecuted. Foreigners still have the impression it’s tough to be black in the USA, but it doesn’t seem as awful as it was before 1964.
  • A more surprising notion for people outside the USA is that Afro-Americans are still a minority in the USA. They only take up about 12% of the general population! From watching American films and TV series one gets the wrong impression that there are about as much Afro-Americans as white people in the USA.

Native Americans

• Historically, they have been called “Indians”, a word that is still used outside the U.S.A. In the United States themselves, the word is no longer considered politically correct and they are referred to as “Native Americans or American Indians.”
• In previous centuries, The Savage Indian was a common stereotype, fed by the 18th and 19th century Western idea that they were basically violent and primitive savages who just needed to be wiped from the country they lived in for centuries. Buffalo Bill ‘s Wild West shows and countless westerns have also cemented this image inside people’s heads. The standard script depicts them as follows. When The Natives Are Restless, they will start pounding a large drum and dig up their tomahawks. After mounting their mustangs, they attack every stagecoach, covered wagon, or fortress in the neighborhood. They shoot arrows or throw tomahawks at their victims all while ululating by putting one hand in front of their mouth (something real life Native American tribes never did, but was introduced by Buffalo Bill’s shows). When they capture “palefaces”, they either scalp them right away or take them to their Tipis And Totempoles village first. There they will tie them up against their totem pole and dance around the pole afterwards. When that is over and done with, they will take turns in throwing tomahawks at their tied up prisoner to test his courage. After that, they will scalp him of flay him alive.
  • However, most of the time they are shown being far more incompetent. They have a tendency to drive to close to the white settlers only to be easily shot off their horses or fortress walls to die in dramatic poses. Even when they sneak up an unsuspecting victim, they will still blow it by ululating loudly before they can actually kill him. Usually, the white men will hand them some “firewater”, which the Natives will consume in great quantities, rendering them drunk afterwards.
  • Brown Face: Another racist stereotype is the image of the “redskin”. In comics, cartoons, and illustrations, Native Americans will all have a dark red skin. In the years before political correctness came in, even Caucasian actors have portrayed Native Americans by painting their own skin red.
• All Native Americans speak Tonto Talk in a deep voice, while mentioning words and phrases like “How”, “Ugh”, “Um”, “white men”, “pale face”, “brother”, “ancestors”, “many moons ago”, “Big Chief”, “pale face speak double talk”,…at least once a sentence. They all have names where a state of character is combined with the name of an animal, plant, or something other nature-related. For instance: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse,… The only tribes that seem to exist in popular culture are Apache, Cherokee, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Blackfoot, and Sioux.
• A more positive depiction of Native Americans that became the norm since the 1960s is the Noble Savage or Magical Native American, all of them badass. They will be Perfect Pacifist People who prefer smoking the Peace Pipe and signing peace treaties with white men. Unfortunately, they are usually the victim of the white man’s greed and colonialism. Often they live in such harmony with nature that they only kill as many buffaloes they need and not a single one more. Usually will provide the foolish white man with a Green Aesop about nature and the danger of destroying the environment. This image has become so strong that they are often used in environmental messages, like the Crying Indian.
• Other stereotypical images are Indian women carrying their papoose (“child”) in a bag on their back, indian maidens and The Chief’s Daughter falling in love with a white prisoner, thus saving his life. When Native Americans make friends, they perform a Blood Brothers act. All communication is done by sending smoke signals to one another. When they travel, it’s usually by horse or canoe.
• In popular culture, Native Americans are virtually a historical artifact. Stories set in the modern age hardly show them, except as proprietors of Native American Casinos. Those who aren’t are poor, live in reservations, and are either alcoholics, diabetics, or both.
  • In horror movies, the Twist Ending explanation why the house was haunted is usually because it was built on an ancient Indian Burial Ground.
• Native American characters also show up a good deal in beat ‘em ups, and are almost without exception presented as being nature-loving, spiritual, calm, and dressed in the archetypal attire. Examples include the towering Thunder Hawk of Street Fighter, Michelle and Julia from Tekken, and Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat.

American West

• Hawaii: Pretty girls with long black hair, coconut bras, and grass skirts who enjoy hula dancing and put flower garlands (“leis”) over every tourist’s shoulders. The island has a very relaxed atmosphere with parties (“luaus”) and people drinking soft drinks while wearing Hawaiian shirts, surfing, and playing the ukelele. There are also a lot of pineapples, Tiki statues, and pigs roasted at the beaches. And, of course, the word “Aloha” most be mentioned or sung at least once!.
• California: A state where liberal-thinking people live in the sun, near the beach. California also has a strange universal attraction for people outside the state to either visit or move to the place. In the 19th century, the “gold rush” motivated many fortune seekers to move here. During the 1960s, all hippies wanted to travel to San Francisco. Every child in the world wants to visit Anaheim because of Disneyland and every aspiring actor of director dreams of making it big in Hollywood.
  • San Francisco is best known for its streetcars, Golden Gate Bridge, the Transamerica pyramid, Star Fleet Headquarters, wineries, Silicon Valley, earthquakes, hom*osexuals, and hippies.
  • Horrible Hollywood and It Came from Beverly Hills: Los Angeles is universally famous for Hollywood, palm trees on both sides of the road, Beverly Hills and its Silicon Valley. In popular culture, it will always seem as if everyone is busy making movies there. Indeed, many film crews just make their pictures in Los Angeles, with the result that even if it’s not explicitly stated as being in Hollywood the anytown USA will still be recognizably L.A. You have the succesful A-movie stars who are just as rich as they are arrogant and narcissistic. They all live in huge secluded mansions with a private chauffeur, jet, tennis court, and swimming pool. There they lead a decadent lifestyle full of expensive parties with drug-induced orgies. Either they have a Happy Marriage Charade for the press and public or add their umpteenth divorce on the list. Their only genuine ambition is winning an(other) Oscar and getting even richer. Especially those who have been in show business too long seem to have lost all sense of realism or normality. When they appear in public they wear sunglasses and try to put on a charade by keeping a fixated fake smile at all times and laugh in an equally fake way about the most mondane things. Older actors and actresses will reminsce about their glory days, yet are lucky if they get a bit part in a new movie nowadays because they are old, ugly, and almost forgotten. Virtually all of them have had some Magic Plastic Surgery at one point, which may lead to an Uncanny Valley Nightmare Face. The rest of the city is populated with aspiring unknowns who dream of becoming a Hollywood star, yet are still obscure losers who struggle to make ends meet. At best they will end up in a low-budget p*rn movie or B-movie with bad special effects. A sleazy Corrupt Corporate Executive will exploit naïve actresses by showing them his Casting Couch. He won’t have a dime for a creative, original script, but is happy to pump millions of dollars into a bland, dumb,unrealistic blockbuster full of clichés and platitudes that nevertheless provide audiences with lots of A-list celebrity stars and a satisfying happy end. If someone’s script is accepted, it will still be victim of Executive Meddling.
  • The San Fernando Valley is best known as a heaven for surfers. It’s full of dumb bikini-clad blondes (Valley Girl) or equally brainless surfer dudes who all speak a specific slang (“Whoa, that’s like, totally radical, dude!”) made universally popular by MTV’s Spring Breaks.
  • Apart from that Los Angeles is also infamous for police helicopters flying everywhere, earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires and huge riots that put whole neighbourhoods on fire. The irony that the fake illusions of Hollywood are made here is not lost on foreigners.
• Oregon has an Unknown Rival relationship with California. Apart from the standard Californian stereotypes, Oregonians stereotype Californians as rich, snobby carpetbaggers who can’t drive properly and raise property taxes. Interestingly, the two states have roughly the same values politically, both being reliable blue states in any presidential election. Oregon would probably argue that it has the real environmentalists while California only has the slick poseur versions. Splitters!
• When the rest of the country remembers the Pacific Northwest, they they usually associate it with never-ending rainfall, hippies, environmentalism, hipsters, and (in the case of Seattle) grunge.
• New Mexico is lucky to be considered part of the Union at all, most of the time it’s kind of off to the side and gets awkward looks from everyone else.
  • Truth in Television: The state’s tourist magazine runs a monthly column called “One of Our Fifty Is Missing,” for readers to report real-world encounters with others who honestly don’t know that New Mexico is a state, leading for example to requests to show a New Mexico passport, etc. One of these was an experience recounted by a former governor of New Mexico.
  • New Mexico is further known for being a former testing ground for atomic bombs and a military top secret base where the government hides extraterrestrial aliens ever since the 1947 Roswell incident. In reality, the only aliens the local authorities fight are illegal immigrants from over the Mexican border.
  • Also well known for Albuquerque, where Bugs Bunny should have made a left turn.
• Arizona is The Wild West. It’s extremely hot here, enough to melt a snow cone in Phoenix. All rural and the population consists of outlaws, Cowboy Cops, and bartenders. Anybody who tries to enter from the south will be shot on sight.
• Utah: See Mormonism, because nobody knows or mentions anything else about this state besides its Salt Lake or, for older people, the The Osmonds. Basically, Utah is stereotyped as some kind of weird Mormon theocracy and a de facto foreign country on U.S. soil. Polygamy, which the Mormon church endorsed until 1890, is a case of Never Live It Down.

  30 Rock‘s Jack Donaghy: “I thought by now you’d be someplace that U.S. law couldn’t touch you, like Bali or Utah.”

• Colorado has something of a duality. On the one hand, there’s Colorado Springs, aka the Vatican City of Protestant fundamentalism where everyone owns a gun and lives in the mountains. On the other, there’s Boulder and the ski towns, home of the Granola Girl, the New-Age Retro Hippie and, for the latter, rich celebrities making a second home, all of them snowboarding and getting high. And if you’re from Denver or (especially) its suburbs, you’re either a Badass Longcoat who’s thinking about shooting up the school or the movie theater, or ducking and covering to get away. Eastern Colorado, of course, does not exist.
  • Post-2012, when marijuana was legalized for retail sale, everyone smokes it freely and openly.
• Nevada: Best known for Las Vegas and all the degenerate and decadent stuff that can be found there. Stuff that is illegal elsewhere in the USA is legal here, including gambling and prostitution ^note. In popular culture the place is both portrayed as a place of fun, as well as a shallow and degrading hangover afterwards. It’s known for cheap and quick weddings, Elvis impersonators, and washed-up former stars who perform kitschy shows there for nostalgic audiences before they finally croak. Since it was founded by mobsters expect some shady businesspeople, mafiosi, drug dealers, drug users, pimps and prostitutes to appear here too. The rest of Nevada, apart from the Poor Man’s Vegas in Reno and hundreds of hotels and motels, may as well be labeled “Here There Be Aliens.”
• Everyone in Idaho lives in a potato field, Boise, or Deliverance country (where everyone is part of the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation).
• Montana is generally portrayed as having nothing but vegetarians/vegans, survivalists, libertarian psychos, and militia nuts. Geography includes nothing but mountains, forests, and national parks, with towns and cities all isolated as a result. Within Montana, people from Missoula are pot-smoking pansexual hippies, people from Bozeman just moved there from California/Colorado/Washington and are trying to subvert Montana’s tradition of Rugged Individualism, and eastern Montana is a frozen wasteland full of Norwegian Lutherans (in other words, North Dakota). Oh yeah, and Hannah Montana lives here, as well.
  • Another popular stereotype is Montana having an extremely low population density; except for a few cities here and there, it’s miles and miles and miles of empty rolling plains.
• There are, of course, no stereotypes of people from Wyoming since no one lives there. Well, maybe there are cowboys in the mountains but that’s about it. The only reference in popular culture will be Yellowstone National Park where geisers, bears, rangers, redwoods and forest fires are everywhere.

American Midwest

• Apparently, a lot of people think that North Dakota is a frozen wasteland with less than five people and not one of them has seen an ATM before. At least our banks aren’t failing. North Dakotans also have a reputation as heavy drinkers, which is largely Truth in Television (as of this edit, we have the highest per capita alcohol consumption rate in the nation). Rowdy oil roustabouts who couldn’t find work back home live here. Many of the stereotypes traditionally associated with Minnesota also apply to North Dakota.
• South Dakota is famous for Mount Rushmore… and features nothing else. It doesn’t matter how you drive into the state; it’ll always be the first thing you come across. The rest of it is pine trees, highways, and wasteland. In truth, eastern South Dakota has the overflow crowd of Norwegian Lutherans, for a lot of it.
• Kansas is apparently where rationality, science, and fun are all burned alive for witchcraft. It used to be just that big flat area people hurried through to get to the Rockies. The rest of the world knows it for the song Kansas City and the black-and-white scenes of The Wizard of Oz. Comic book fans know it as the residence of Clark Kent.
• Arkansas is commonly confused with Kansas due to the name’s similarity. Home of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students who were initially unable to attend the city’s central high school due to their colour.
• Missouri… actually, no one cares about Missouri. Except for every few years in October. Or if you’re a meth addict. Frowning is a state sport and no one ever wants to come back here. It’s mostly remembered for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. If you live in an adjacent state (other than possibly Arkansas), you think the southern part (south of I-44 if you’re generous, south of I-70 if you’re not) is populated mainly by hillbillies; if you’re from further away, you probably think that about the whole state.
• Minnesota: Minnesotans are seen either as hicks with snow instead of rusted-out cars, or pleasant, blonde suburbanites always willing to help you, if you don’t want to (see Minnesota Nice). Either way, likely to be depicted as socially conservative but politically liberal, closer to earth Good Old Boy types, all of whom are Lutheran and Swedish. See Ole and Lena.
• Iowans like corn! Because corn is nice.
  • Des Moines, Iowa: the reason why Bill Bryson left town and came to England, making a rep as a famous travel writer, journalist, and occassional TV presenter. Without actually saying so, he implies the cloying crushing boredom of his home town and native state was the biggest single prompt to him to get up and go as far away as possible.
• Nebraskans still drive covered wagons, live on farms, and raise corn and cows. They are also rabid Cornhusker fans, loving the team even more than their own families.
• Depending on what part of Michigan you’re from, you’re either a crazy black mugger (Detroit/Flint/Pontiac area), a tree hugger (Grand Rapids), a rich snobby Jew (West Bloomfield), a rich snobby WASP (the rest of Oakland County, save Pontiac, which see above, plus Grosse Pointe), a rich snobby foodie tree hugger (Ann Arbor), a stern Calvinist fundamentalist (Holland and the rest of West Michigan), an Archie Bunker-type white Ronald Reagan Democrat who lost your job on the line (Monroe County, Downriver, much of Lansing area), or a hick who does nothing other than hunt (anywhere north of the Saginaw-Muskegon line). And don’t forget da Yoopers: still a hunting hick, but with a cool accent and pasties, ya?
  • Detroit is best known as the Motor City.
• Illinois: People are apparently either stuck-up, hypocritical, politically corrupt snobs with a Chicaaagaa drawl, or they’re murderous gangsters (’20s or modern, take your pick). During the heydays of Michael Jordan it was internationally known for the Chicago Bulls basketball team. And they’ll advertise the fact that Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield, Illinois before his presidency constantly…
• “Hi, we’re visiting Ohio!” “…Why?” This especially applies to Cleveland.
• Indiana: The Three Kinds of Indiana: hicks who could’ve been from Alabama if they weren’t wearing snowboots and a winter coat; whitebread Everytown, America-ish suburbanites (particularly around Indianapolis and the Chicagoland region); and Inner City Indiana, for which the exemplar is Gary, Indiana, AKA the Armpit of America, where the chemical factories and steel mills release a putrid perfume for all to smell and where the cops will beat the crap out of you, cite you for marijuana possession… and proceed to smoke it right in your face. But to the rest of the world, Indiana is associated with Indiana Jones’ first name and the Indianapolis 500 race.
• Wisconsin: Beer, cheese, beer cheese, bratwursts, cows, beer, cranberries, beer, the Brewers, the Badgers, the Packers (treated as a publicly-owned state religion), and (if you’re really with it) Summerfest^note. That’s it. Oh, and Germans. LOTS of Germans. And beer. Oh yaaah, and all dose women who come from Wisconsin in the media will always be a middle-aged housewife who speaks with a Scandahoovian accent, don’chaknow? Oh You’betcha!

American South

• Deep South: The American South is often depicted as the most rural part of the USA. There are supposedly no cities with modern facilities, just miles of farmland or steep, backwoods, forested mountainsides with here and there a tiny rural town. Either that or cotton fields. The Mississippi River is usually not very far off too and a river boat may pass by, if you’re not attacked by an alligator or surprised by The Great Flood. Typical animals in these regions are skunks and opossums. Everybody here either lives on a farm, in a trailer or in a wooden house with a front porch. All people live In Harmony with Nature and enjoy the simple life, still stuck in the days of The American Civil War and/or The Great Depression.
• If the American South is portrayed in a positive light it will be because of a Call to Agriculture. The region will be portrayed as a romanticized area where you can enjoy the simple life in and on a farm or a mansion with a plantation. There are lots of opportunities go out fishing, walk in the woods or drive in a pick-up truck past the cotton fields and listen to local Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Zydeco, Bluegrass, Folk Music and/or Country Music artists. These images are cultivated in stories like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Uncle Remus stories, Gone with the Wind, Lil Abner, Pogo, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dukes of Hazzard, Forrest Gump, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and virtually all Americana folk music from the 19th century until halfway the 1950s. You may even encounter an intelligent redneck here.
• The Savage South, Southern Gothic and Lovecraft Country: If the South is portrayed in a negative light it will be a setting for crime and horror stories. There may be an abandoned Haunted House (The Amityville Horror) where some axe and/or chainsaw murder took place (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, In Cold Blood). Something may be lurking in the swamp (Creature from the Black Lagoon) or local villagers are out to get you in some other way (Deliverance, The Hills Have Eyes). Even in the less fantastical works the South is the place where people will have to use all their wits, faith and will power to fight against a hostile population or the entire local legal system for that matter (To Kill A Mocking Bird, Inherit the Wind, The Crucible, In the Heat of the Night,Cool Hand Luke,…). It’s also popularly associated with bankrobbers, con-artists or escaped chain gang criminals on the run (Bonnie and Clyde, Paper Moon, Dillinger, The Defiant Ones, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang,…)
• Typically, all white people are stereotyped as primitive, slow-witted and uneducated gap toothed slack-jawed yokel rednecks and hillbillies. They all have double names (Billy Bob, Mary Lou) or biblical names (Ezechiel, Jebediah) and are very religious. All of them are Republican voting good ol’ boys who don’t believe in the evolution theory, yet see UFOs everywhere. Everybody is still frustrated that they lost the Civil War, yet confident that The South Will Rise Again. They hang out the Confederate Flag, deny the Afro-American Civil Rights Movement ever happened and wish slavery was still in effect. Some of them are ugly and stupid as a result of inbreeding and fancy their cousins.
• There are several types of Southern white stereotypes:
  • 1) The dirt poor farmer (Pa) who lives together with a disciplinary Apron Matron (Ma), a Southern Belle daughter whom he’ll protect at all times and only give away in a Shotgun Wedding. He might have a grandmother who smokes a corncob pipe and has a shotgun. Inbreeding is rampant with Kissing Cousins and all, which has contributed to their ugly looks and stupidity. They will do nothing besides sit around in a rocking chair all day, chew and spit tobacco, drink Hillbilly Moonshiner liquor from a jug, play banjo and stare menacingly at every stranger passing by with the words: “We don’t like what y’r doin’ here, strangyur”. Whenever they feel threatened- or if something moves in their vicinity – they will reach out for their handgun and shoot. Or they just call out for an old-fashioned lynching. Sometimes they may have a centuries old feud with some other family. If they enlist in the army they’ll be a Southern-Fried Private.
  • 2) The corrupt, racist, xenophobic, pot bellied sherrif in Sinister Shades who supposedly obeys the law, yet informs everybody: We do things our own way here. This typically involves having no trials or one where a Simple Country Lawyer and/or a Hanging Judge who will invariably chose the side of the sherrif and sentence you to heavy fines or a lynching by hanging. All his prisoners are typically Working on the Chain Gang alongside the road.
  • 3) The even more Corrupt Hick Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit who lives on a plantation. He is constantly dabbing himself with a handkerchief or uses a fan for the same purpose. Typically he smokes a cigar, uses a cane and/or controls the local town. He has put all his brothers and cousins in high governmental positions. At night he is a closet Ku Klux Klan member. Can be a charming and sophisticated, yet arrogant and untrustworthy Southern Gentleman too.
  • 4) A fire-and-brimstone preacher who is staunchly conservative, judgemental and intolerant. He believes every word in the Bible literally, denounces the evolution theory and will engage in exorcisms, magical healings, river baptisms and stuff that is a mix between fraud and superstition. Is either Baptist or Pentecostal and will be supported by Moral Guardians and frightened locals.
• Of course, there are black people in the South too. In outdated popular culture they are still treated as second-rate citizens, work in conditions that are supisciously close to slavery and will frequently be lynched by Ku Klux Klan members. Stereotypes still in fashion to this day portray black Southerners as loud preachers who punctuate their speech and engage in gospel singing. Or they’ll be blues guitarists who went to the crossroads to sell their soul to the devil in exchange for their talent. Or jazz artists playing in a local brass band.
• Louisiana is a subset of the Georgia/Alabama/Mississippi Deliverance country, except everybody speaks French patois and may be a Ragin’ Cajun. And there’s New Orleans. New Orleans is drunk and debauched (or was destroyed by hurricane Katrina) and will mostly be filled with jazz bands and sleazy people. Occasionally, a traditional Mississippi river boat will pass by. Expect hurricanes or floods to regularly destroy everything in its vicinity. Alligators inhabit every lake.
• People from Tennessee are either hillbillies who play banjos and sleep with their cousins, typical fat Deep South rednecks, or murderous inner-city thugs who will beat you up, steal your wallet, and shank you with a knife if they think you might have more than $5 on you. The hillbillies are all on meth, the rednecks are all drunk, and the gangstas guzzle codeine cough syrup by the quart. The exceptions are Nashville, which is populated entirely with country musicians, and Graceland, which is filled with Elvis freaks.
• West Virginia is considered an acceptable target even by the most politically correct people out there. According to the rest of America, West Virginians are all uneducated, white trash, racist, dirt poor, toothless, shoeless, gun-toting hillbillies who eat raccoons and have moonshine running through their veins. The state pastimes include hunting squirrels and having sex with their cousins, then letting their inbred offspring drive when they’re two-years-old.
• Texas: Howdy Y’all! Everyone in Texas is a gun-toting, horse-riding cowboy who eats nothing but gigantic steaks and huge bowls of chilli, drinks nothing but gigantic servings of beer (Shiner, Lone Star, or Budweiser if you have it), whiskey, and tequila, and drives a gigantic pickup truck. They all wear big cowboy hats, carry lassos, and attend rodeos every evening. Houston is home to the Space Center, [[Film/Apollo13 where a problem might be informed]] and San Antonio is historically remembered for the Alamo. TV watchers world wide also know it for oil-bearing ranches, as depicted in Dallas, the same city where John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
  • Everything Is Big in Texas: Texas is associated with gigantic beers, steaks, pickup trucks, cowboy hats and guns. Even the stories that people tell here are so exaggarated that they have earned a special name: tall tales. The most famous tall tale character Paul Bunyan is even a giant!
• Mississippi: Everyone who lives in Mississippi is poor, morbidly obese with a heart condition, and lives in an old-fashioned one-floor house next to the Mississippi River.
• Oklahoma!: Everyone who lives in Oklahoma is either a proud Native American living in a teepee, or a dumb-as-rocks hillbilly living in a trailer wondering why the “ternaders” always blow his house away. The rest of the world knows it for the eponymous musical Oklahoma!.
• Florida. 98% of Americans think Florida’s history began with the invention of air conditioning, the Panhandle is the only part of the state that is possibly south of the Mason-Dixon line, Miami-Dade is part of Cuba, not the United States, and the state’s population doubles the day the first snowflake falls north of the Mason-Dixon line. Also, ask more than 99% of Americans what the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in North America is, and the answer will not be St. Augustine. In fact, the only things Florida is known for worldwide are Disney World, Cape Canaveral, MTV Spring Breaks, drunk & half nude college students, beach babes in bikini, Palm Beach, The Everglades, frequent hurricanes and alligators. And admit it: we’ve all noticed p*rn movies from companies like Brazzers, Bang Bros., Reality Kings, and Girls Gone Wild are all based in Miami, Florida (what else would you be watching in these films?)
  • Only in Florida and Only In Miami: Also a popular location for action packed stories involving cops, detectives, drug dealers, illegals, terrorists and aliens. Even in Real Life the most weird news stories all seem to hail from this state, if it’s not from the American South in general.
• Kentucky is known for bluegrass musicians, tobacco, horse racing, bourbon, college basketball, Fort Knox, the annual Kentucky horse race and of course, its famous fried chicken.
• Virginia overall is seen (by those who are even aware that Virginia and West Virginia are separate states) as the reddest of the red states, inhabited solely by Pat Robertson, George Allen, Ken Cuccinelli, and Eugene Delgaudio. This also plays into the divide between Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.
• Delaware: (in monotone) “Hi. We’re from… Delaware.”
  • “Delaware. That’s a state, but most Americans don’t even know that, unless they live there.”
  • Delaware is best known as America’s First State. They were the first ones to sign the constitution that made them part of the USA.
• Depending on what show you’re watching, Washington, DC is populated entirely by either (1) high-ranking administration officials and corrupt national politicians or, (2) military service members and federal government workers, or (3) shameless corporate lobbyists on K Street and various corrupt defense contractors or, (4) the News Media (5) MPD officers, drug kingpins, and corrupt municipal politicians. Either way, it is obligatory for depictions of local geography to be horribly wrong, and everything is the exact opposite of whatever the writer considers to be good and just. Also, version (i) of D.C. has absolutely no long-term residents.
  • No matter where you go, you can always see the Capitol, TheWhiteHouse, UsefulNotes/ThePentagon, or the Washington Monument. And the Lincoln Monument will make a cameo as well. Other architectural cameos will be made by the Smithsonian Institute.
    • The American President is a stereotype in itself. When actual presidents aren’t directly referenced themselves a standard version of the American President will be used. Democratic Presidents will be portrayed as an Expy of John F. Kennedy. Republican Presidents are usually portrayed as an Expy of Richard Nixon and/or Ronald Reagan. Invariably they all look up to Abraham Lincoln. In American fiction the President will always be a good, decent man who cares about his people. He may have some flaws, but they only make him human and don’t diminish his heroic stature. In foreign fiction the portrayals tend to be more cynical and show him as either a bumbling imbecilic fool, a closet racist or a corrupt, war mongering lunatic. Or he is just a puppet in hands of his Vice President, the Minister of Defense, the CIA or the FBI. In either way he will be involved in all kinds of shady conspiracy theories which plan the overthrowal of foreign regimes that disobey Washington’s orders by organizing new wars to please the American gun lobby. All the President wants to do is push the red button and nuke the world to smithereens. Typically all his government meetings take place in the Oval Office or the Pentagon and without any interference or approval from the House of Congress. Apart from political and economical mayhem he may also have extra-marital affairs with his secretaries or other women. In America itself negative portrayals of the American President occur more in direct satirical attacks of a specific real life president, usually from the viewpoint of people from the opposite political ideology.
  • Seattle, Washington is known for computers, the Space Needle and the grunge movement.
• Georgia will always be treated as a backwards hicktown that is extremely white and extremely intolerant (see the 30 Rock episode “Stone Mountain”). This is despite the fact that its capital, Atlanta, is 54% black, home to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and some of the most high-tech medical/biohazard facilities in the world, and actually has the 3rd highest population of LGBT people in the U.S. (behind San Francisco and Seattle). It’s known as the home town of Coca Cola and the Atlanta Airport. But at least since Ray Charles, it is “always on our mind”.
• Alabama is best known for being the state where cowboys ride “with a banjo on their knee”, the song “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the homeplace of Forrest Gump. On a more negative note, it’s also the home state of the Ku Klux Klan and many furious race riots in the past. Also famous for the city of Montgomery, where Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her bus seat to a racist white man notably set off the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

American Northeast

• New Jersey is full of corrupt politicians, organized crime, industrial pollution, ill-behaved Italians, Stepford Suburbia, and emo teens.
• New Yorkers: Rude, loud, thieves, gangsters, snobbish, empty headed, any stereotype you can fit with Italians/Jews/*enter other classic New York immigrant here*, and at worst, liberal demons. And yes, this accounts for those who live in Upstate New York as well. Even the Amish.
  • Don’t go to Harlem either, ‘cause Afro-American gangs will either threaten you, mug you, shoot you, or just show off their rapping and break dancing skills.
  • In Hollywood films and TV series, New York City is always the most prominent target for giant monster attacks, Brooklyn Rage, ghosts that need to be busted, turtles living in sewers, alien invasions, environmental disasters, or science fiction wars. In fact: if a story has to take place somewhere other than Everytown, America, it will always be New York City. Despite being something of The Big Rotten Apple in popular culture…
  • When in New York, make sure that you show the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park, Broadway, Wall Street, The New York Stock Exchange, Times Square, the UN Headquarters, Brooklyn Bridge, King Kong or Woody Allen. Play “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra on the soundtrack. Mention at least once it’s “the city that never sleeps.” Whenever the Statue of Liberty is shown, it’s often in a historical setting with immigrants arriving by ship in the harbour. And of course skyscrapers can be seen everywhere.
  • New York City has five boroughs, namely the Bronx (where Hip Hop was born and the Bronx Zoo can be visited), Brooklyn (historically an immigrant neighbourhood, full of Brooklyn Rage), Manhattan (cultural and economic heart of town, exemplified by Times Square, Wall Street and cultural icons like Broadway and several museums.), Queens and Staten Island.
  • Irish-Americans are also thought of with much suspicion in Great Britain as a bunch of ignorant dolts with a chip on their shoulder about The Irish Question whose dollars in donation to Northern Irish “charities” subsidized the most murderous Irish terrorist groups for nearly thirty years and kept them in bombs and bullets.
  • Although after 9/11, when the USA was itself the victim of a terrorist attack, donations to Irish terrorists from North American sources dried up overnight — the penny had finally dropped about what terrorism does and people were less willing to inflict this on others, even on the Brits.
• Rhode Island has the worst drivers in America, coffee addicts (Dunkin’ Donuts to be exact), cannot give directions, think a 45-minute drive is a daylong trip, and have the most corrupt government that you’d ever see… it’d make Tony Soprano stand in awe. They also have an inferiority complex with Massachusetts, especially pertaining to their big colleges (RI’s Brown and MA’s Harvard). Too bad Massachusetts already has its own inferiority complex for New York and hasn’t really noticed.
• Pennsylvania has three, and only three types of people. In Pittsburgh, everyone is a dopey and unemployed Pole that worships the Steelers like a religion. In Philadelphia, everyone is a perpetually-raging meathead (thanks to a constant diet of cheesesteaks) who will kill Santa Claus just to make your child cry (and worships the Eagles like a religion). Everyone else lives in “Pennsyltucky”, and worships Penn State like a religion. For their stereotypes, see Kentucky directly above. Oh, and there’s the Amish. Lots and lots of Amish. Philadelphia is also historically known for the Liberty Bell, which has a crack in it since the American War Of Independence.
• Maine: We have lobsters, moose, lighthouses, and beaches, some of which are more rock than sand. For the most part, Maine exists as one big tourist attraction, and the idea that it still exists in the winter is an idea limited solely to skiers and natives. For the rest of New England, Maine is Yankee redneck country. And if you see even the slightest thing out of the ordinary… run. Run as far away as quickly as your legs can take you.
  • There’s also trees. Lots and lots and lots of trees. It’s called the “Pine Tree State” for a reason. The state flower is even the pine cone, which isn’t even a flower.
• Massachusetts: Massachusetts: full of rich, pretentious WASP Harvard graduates who hate Yale University, or loud, obnoxious, drunken Irish-Americans… and sometimes both. Have a bit of an inferiority complex with New York, especially pertaining to sports teams. Dislikes EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE LIST (except the Irish or British, depending on social class), occasionally giving an exception to other New Englanders. The MIT nerd is sometimes seen. The Boston Brahmins are often seen as being socially liberal, as they crusaded against slavery, drinking, and segregation, in addition to being the first state to legalize gay marriage. This is seen as genuine care, while California is thought of holding these views superficially (along with everything else).
  • Massachusetts is also well-known for its historical events. From the Mayflower landing near Plymouth Rock in 1620, to the Salem witch burnings and the 1776 Boston Tea Party.
• Vermont: Either ice cream and maple syrup or the Oregon of the east. Take your pick. Also, apparently the “moonlight in/on Vermont” is quite a sight, according to some songs.
• Connecticut: Had you actually bothered to learn that Connecticut is a real place on the map, you would probably think of its people as rich, snobby Rockefeller Republican Yalies who hate Harvard. Preppy style clothing is frighteningly common, especially among the baby boomer generation. The only entertainment available here is the local library and college sports.
• New Hampshire: Libertarians who sell alcohol at highway rest stops (in stores operated by the state, no less) and don’t require you to wear your seat belt while in a car. Live free or die ^note, indeed. Traditionally also the first state to held primary elections every four years in the process of choosing the delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions which choose the party nominees for the presidential elections. They also used to be known for a rock formation that appeared to be the jagged profile of a human face when viewed from the north: The Old Man of the Mountain, but it collapsed in 2003 due to centuries of freezing and thawing.

• Generally referred to as Latin America, because so many countries in this continent either speak Spanish, Portuguese or French (French Guyana). As a result, many Hispanic stereotypes about Spain and Portugal will also be used for Latin-Americans: people prefer having siësta’s, sing serenades while playing the guitar, women are Spicy Latina and men are latin lovers,… Despite this, not all countries in Middle and South America have a Latin language based native tongue. There are also some Dutch speaking states (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Sint Eustachius, Suriname,…) and English ones (Guyana, Jamaica, The Falklands,…). And, of course, indigenous people also have their own languages.
  • Latino Is Brown: All Latin Americans will be portrayed as people with a comparatively dark skin, hair and eyes, usually being markedly mestizo or of indigenous origin, even if they come from countries with a white majority like Argentina or Uruguay.
• Latin Americans, particularly in Spanish speaking countries are stereotyped as servile towards Spain in many aspects, mainly in the norms and rules regarding the Spanish Language and their general attitude towards the Spanish Monarchs; the latter in particular is rather confusing, as the King Juan Carlos is still referred to in the media as “His Majesty” even when the countries gained their independence hundreds of years before.
  • Other King and Queens are referred to as “His/Her Majesty” by Latin America media, and The Pope is referred to as “His Holiness” as well. (Specially the media that politically leans towards the right-wing) It’s just out of common etiquette, which others aren’t necessarily bound by.
• Banana Republic: Latin America as a whole is generally associated with short-term military dictatorships who are either Fascist or Communist. Victims of the regime will traditionally be tortured in cellars and executed by fire squad. Or they just… disappear. Guerilleros will be hiding in the jungle to overthrow the government, only to become just as tyrannic afterwards.
• The Cartel: Another negative stereotypical image are drug barons who traffic hard drugs, usually cocain, to other parts of the world. They will murder everyone who gets in their way.
• Yet another negative stereotype is luckily an urban legend so far: the Chupacabra.
• Geographically Latin America is best known for the Andes mountains, which gave us the following clichés: llamas, condors and people playing a pan flute at the side of a mountain.
• Historically the continent is most famous for several native peoples like the Maya, the Aztecs, the Olmecs, the Incas,… These cultures built large temples, pyramids and cities, most famously Macchu Pichu in Perú, though some people would rather give extraterrestrial aliens credit for this. Since they ritually sacrificed many of their own people to the sun and were slaughtered by Spanish-Portugese conquistadores as well there aren’t many of these people left.
• Another famous location is the thick and unpenetrable Amazone rain forest, best known as a popular location in adventure stories. Travellers might seek legendary cities of gold, unknown archeological sites, Mayincatec mummies, huge monsters, primitive tribes unaware of modern society or ancestors of the Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, Inca culture who managed to survive in secret after all those centuries. Usually all kinds of Raiders of the Lost Ark booby-traps prevent explorers from taking these long lost treasures along with them. Or the Temple of Doom just collapses. Hollywood Natives might try to kill them as a Human Sacrifice as well. Or they encounter a famous explorer lost for decades whom they presumed was dead, but actually went native. While on expedition they will also inevitably come across several South American jungle clichés. First and foremost: Amazonian Indians. Like all tribal societies in Western popular culture they are depicted as being dumb, primitive and always head-hunting. They use blowguns to fire off poisoned arrows or make shrunken heads out of their victims. Or they just eat them. Other obstacles are dangerous animals like jaguars, pumas, leopards and black panthers leaping from trees. Anacondas and boa constrictors will strangle you, huge bats and mosquitoes suck your blood, poisonous tarantulas the size of dinner plates crawl everywhere and when you fall in the river piranhas or caimans will rip you to shreds. Some less threatening jungle animals might also have a cameo: anteaters, chinchillas, armadillos, howler monkeys, sloths, humming birds, parrots, toucans, flamingos,…
• Other images about Latin America are soccer players and their enthusiastic fans, sexy and catchy dance music and exotic and juicy drinks.
• All novels written in Latin America are written in Magic Realism. All adaptations of those novels have a minimalist and endlessly weepy soundtrack by Philip Glass.

Middle America The Caribbean

• The sun always shines. Calypso, mento, reggae, dancehall, soca, rhumba and steelband are constantly being played. There’s free fruit everywhere. Everyone is drunk and/or high, and may have a pet parrot. Nobody does any work, they just sit on the beach sipping fruity little drinks or coconut milk. At night, the careless or unlucky might see a voodoo ceremony, especially if they are in Haiti (see Pat Robertson after the earthquake there). The only serious activities are theft, drug trafficking and even worse crimes. Expect everyone to have a Jamaican accent, regardless of where they are. Also, the only countries that seem to exist there are Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica (maybe the Bahamas).
  • Another association with many of the Caribbean isles are slaves imported from Africa, pirates and strong reminders of still quite recent colonial times.

The Bahamas

• Best known for tropical fishes, sharks, marlins, flamingos, coral riffs and mangrove forests.
• In the past it was a pirates’ nest. The infamous buccaneer Blackbeard hid himself here.

Cuba

• Cubans are often depicted as heavy smokers of Havana cigars.
• Within Spanish-speaking countries there’s the stereotype that Cubans end all their phrases with the word “Chico”, and generally mangle Spanish grammar and/or pronunciation. There is a saying that “the Spanish language was born in Castille and died in Cuba”.
• Cubans are often lampooned for their self-given impression that they are more closely related to the Spaniards than the rest of Latin America and don’t like to be reminded that there are Tainos and Blacks in their country; truth is, almost everyone and their mothers in Latin America are descendants of the Spanish with varying degrees of generational removal and it’s just a fact of life, not particularly noteworthy.
  • Inside Cuba people from the province of Pinar Del Rio are seen as somewhat dumb and terrible planners.
• Before 1959 Cuba had a reputation for being a safe haven for maffiosi (famously depicted in The Godfather II). After the Cuban Revolution the world knows it solely for being one of the few Communist countries left in the world, embodied by president Fidel Castro. Under his regime Cuba gained a strong reputation for harboring the best doctors and hospitals in the world. The education system also reached high levels compared to other Third World countries. Yet, despite all that, the country still remains a dictatorship and since the fall of the Soviet Union they lost one of their major financial backers.
  • Many people have fled Cuba by boat and went to Florida, where they express firm anti-Castro and anti-communist opinions and vote Republican. Castro-hating Cubans are often cast as villains in JFK conspiracy theories because of his debacles with the American intervention on the island. Expatriates from other countries in the USA tend to see Cubans as extremely loud and entitled freeloaders. It doesn’t help that they get green cards faster than any other nationality in an apparent American move to spite Castro.
  • One of Cuba’s most notorious aspects since Castro took over are the numerous old-timer cars that can be seen everywhere. Due to the American boycot of the country they cannot import newer models from there and thus rely on using and repairing the ones that were left there after the revolution.
• Musically Cuba is best known for producing several catchy band leaders, singers and dancers, such as Pérez Prado, Benny Moré, Celia Cruz and the Buena Vista Social Club.
• One of the most prevalent stereotypes of the Cubans in the United States is associated with the 1980 initiative that Fidel Castro pushed to have most of the inmates in Cuba’s jails and mental health facilities, plus their fringe poor to be sent to South Florida in a mass emigration known as the Mariel Boatlift. The Cubans that emigrated were known as the Marielitos, which left a pervasive image of lawlessness among the Cuban population in Florida, prompting the plots of films like Scarface (1983) and TV shows like Miami Vice where Marielitos were portrayed as frequent villains.

Haiti

• Haitians, aside from the voodoo things, are seen as pity seekers in search of constant support and help. Even though they are considered to be French speakers, there is a great amount of the population that does not speak an ounce of French; it does not help that most of the contact they have with the world is with the Americas, which are largely English, Spanish and Portuguese speakers, having a language barrier by default. In the USA, Haitians are known to be dutiful, yet extremely conflictive workers who pull the Race Card more often than not.

Jamaica

• Before the late 1960s Jamaica was mostly known for being a pirates’ hideout. From the 18th and 19th century onward it was world famous for the export of sugar.
• Since the 1950s, 1960s and especially the 1970s the island has become internationally famous for their highly unique musical styles: calypso, bluebeat, mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, ragga, dancehall,… In popular culture Jamaicans will always be playing steeldrum or listening to Harry Belafonte or Bob Marley on their transistor radio.
  • Reggae in particular has popularized the image of Jamaica as a country where everyone is black, wears dreadlocks, smokes marijuana (ganja) and speaks in the the local dialect (“patois”) with a deep voice.
    • A Jamaican will always use the following words and stock phrases: “I and I”, “brethren”, “riddims”, “Babylon”, “Jah live”, “Jah rastafari”, “Zion”, “dread natty dread”, “hey mon”, “smoke da herb”, “smoke a spliff”,… They will refer to any woman as “woman”
    • All Jamaicans will be portrayed as being Rastafarians. This despite the fact that Rastafarianism is still nothing more than a cult on Jamaica and not even close to being the largest religion on the island.
    • For decades people had the impression that marijuana was legal in Jamaica, while in reality it wasn’t. Its use was nevertheless so widespread that people were rarely prosecuted unless they were high (pun not intended) profile. Only recently, in May/June 2014, has it been decriminalized.
• Don’t try to start an argument between a Jamaican and a Colombian about who has the best coffee. It doesn’t end well.
• Jamaica is notorious for being dirt poor, corrupt and full of crime. Even reggae stars aren’t safe from assassinations. Peter Tosh, Don Drummond, King Tubby, Prince Far I, Junior Braithwaite and Carlton Barrett (from Bob Marley & The Wailers),… have all been murdered over the years. Even Bob Marley was targeted, but survived the murder attempt.
• Another negative reputation associated with the island is its hom*ophobia. Many Jamaicans hate or fear “batty boys” (gays) and will resort to violence against them. hom*osexuality is still a punishable offense on the island and local musicians even boast about murdering gays in their lyrics.

Mexico

• Mexico is usually reduced to 19th century stereotypes. All men wear large sombreros, colorful ponchos or serapes and have long thick black moustaches. They may be gauchos, Desperados or Banditos riding around on horses who will refer to you as either a “gringo” (“stranger”), “amigo” (“friend”) or “señor/señorita” (“sir, “lady”). Every few minutes there’s a “revolución” or an execution by firesquad going on. While one dictator is replaced by another tyrant groups of guerrilleros prepare the local defenseless villagers for the next military coup. To round it all off all the gunslingers will have a Mexican Standoff. Much of this imagery is derived from Zorro, Speedy Gonzales and dozens of Western movies.
• Spexico: Some stereotypes about Mexicans are similar to those about Spaniards. They all enjoy singing and dancing, eat foods comprised of beans and hardened corn and peppers too spicy for foreigners to handle, drink tequila and watch bull fights. Most of their time is spent taking a siesta in hammocks, against a wall or even against a cactus, if neccessary. The lazy hispanic stereotype is also in vogue in Mexico.
• Typical Mexican dishes are tamales, tacos, pineapple, avocado, guava, mangos, enchiladas, tabasco, tequila and burritos.
• Masked Luchador: Apart from bull fighting Mexico is also known for a particular type of wrestling, named “Lucha Libre”. One wrestler, El Santo, has pratically become a Folk Hero larger than life and has starred in countless local B-movies.
• Mexicans are often shown playing guitar serenades underneath a balcony, while singing and dancing jarabes, corridos or mariachi to the melodies of La Cucaracha and/or The Mexican Hat Dance. Or they engage in piñata smashing.
• Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Another stereotype is that Mexicans will spent the night around a campfire enjoying the hallucinogenic effects of peyote. Often in presence of some Magical Native American, nearby an ancient temple. A Spirit Advisor may appear.
• In the United States Mexicans are mostly seen as illegals who try to sneak over the border and move to the U.S.
  • Especially in American media, Mexicans will always be depicted as mestizo, even in some of the more northern areas of Mexico where whites are just as common.
  • Mexican characters are common in (beat ‘em up) video-games and are prevalently depicted as masked luchadors in all of the main series, likely because Lucha Libre is the nation’s most iconic national sport. Examples come in two distinct flavours: There’s the stacked, heroic, mysteriously faceless, Friend to All Children type, which includes King from the Tekken series and the Aztec inspired, eagle-masked Tizoc from Fatal Fury – both fight to help fund and support local orphanages. The other type is far closer to real life and almost the exact opposite, being depicted as very short in stature, loud, gobby and Hot-Blooded, with examples including El Fuerte from Street Fighter (who’s voiced like a pitched-down Speedy Gonzales), El Stingray from Saturday Night Slam Masters and El Blaze from Virtua Fighter. Angel, from The King of Fighters (whose favourite foods are “tequila and raw cactus slices”, according to her offical bio), represents a female Mexican luchadora, albeit without the usual mask.
• All Mexicans either ride donkeys or eat them.
• Every Mexican owns a chihuahua as a pet dog. In Chihuahua, of course!
• Mexico City is the only place that exists in fiction. Acapulco might get a mention and Tijuana, but more as a Wretched Hive, where whor*houses, cheap tequila and donkeys are the main attractions.

Nicaragua

• Very prominent in the 1980s, because the Reagan administration tried to back the overthrowing of a socialist government there.
• Nicaragua has a hundred-year-long standing dispute with Colombia for the sovereignty of the San Andres Archipelago (which is incidentally closer to Nicaragua), though it has remained largely diplomatic.

Panama

• It has a famous canal.
• Also seen as a sort-of cheap and still majorly untouched beach resort.

Trinidad

• Trinidadian people are often confused with those of other Caribbean countries, when it is a much richer and more modern country.
• Trinis also see Jamaicans as poor, western tourists as patronising (redirecting them to Tobago), and also see Tobagans as rural and backward. Conversely Tobagans see Trinis as stuck up.

South America Argentina

• The most enduring Argentinean stereotype is the tango dancer, a popular image since spicy women will be dancing, while brawling, moustached macho men strung their guitars in some ill-lit bar. The most universally famous and acclaimed Argentine musician, Ástor Piazzolla, was a tango composer.
  • The stereotypic tango danced in movies is American Ballroom Tango, which has nothing to do with the tango usually danced in the Argentinian “tanguerías” or “milongas”. Cringeworthy for Argentinians with even a cursory knowledge of how the real tango is danced.
• Argentina has the most Caucasian civilians of any Latin American country, along with Uruguay. This makes it somewhat less exotic for North Americans and Europeans, who feel more at home; this is also played by the Argentine Bureau of Tourism, which made Buenos Aires the most visited city in Latin America, with heavy contribution of North American and European visitors.
  • Argentina’s “white” reputation and magnetic attraction for European visitors and immigrants might also explain why Argentina Is Naziland. Since the end of the Second World War, many former Nazis fled to the country. Given that Argentina had its share of fascist dictators in the past it may not come as a surprise that these war criminals were able to live there without fear of deportation, untill the return of democracy for good, back in the 80’s, since then every single one of them ever found has been deported to whatever country wanted them to be judged for the war crimes they committed. Now that most of them are finally dead this stereotype might die out as well.
• Politically and economically, Argentina has suffered the same bad reputation many other Latin-American countries did. It’s a never-ending Wretched Hive of dictators (not anymore), corrupt politicians, economic crisis, extreme inflation, streets blocked with picketers and trade union militants.
• Yet, along with other Latin American countries Argentina also has a reputation for producing excellent soccer players, with Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi as the most iconic examples.
  • There’s also something unique about Argentine audiences. Their soccer supporters have a special name,hinchas, but whether it be a sport match or a musical concert they will always react with tremendous enthusiasm and great gratitude. They even sing entire songs (not just verses!) in the stadiums and change the lyrics into actual chants fit for the occasion. Even when their team is losing they will keep on singing. Other countries started copying this trend. ^*
  • Megadeth went to say that they always enjoyed playing in Argentina because of the audience reception there, they even recorded a DVD to show it to the rest of their fans, and the world. AC/DC recorded an entire DVD in the River Plate stadium, and Ramones were chased around in the streets of Buenos Aires by obsessive fans. The band even choose the country for their final international concert.
    • There’s a local proverb that says “Hinchada hay una sola: hinchada de Argentina, las demás no tienen bola”.^*
• Apart from soccer icons Argentinia also had its fair share of other universally admired, yet controversial heroes, like Che Guevara and Evita Peron.
• Argentine men will be seductive, yet melancholic cynics.
  • In the countryside, all men are brave gauchos, generally noble, proud and stoic, who can even sew silk on horseback and tend to answer to the smallest provocation with a knife. They mostly eat read meat and drink gallons of wine and the mate beverage.
• Argentine women have a reputation for being beautiful spicy women, an image mostly created by famous supermodels like Valeria Mazza (that is actually blond) and Carolina “Pampita” Ardoahín.
• In Latin America Argentines in general have a reputation for being vain, arrogant, sarcastically cynic know-it-alls, who talk way too much. They fancy themselves some kind of European exiles in Latin America, who shouldn’t be considered “Latinos” at all.
  • This specific reputation is, inside the country and even in near countries as Uruguay and Paraguay, atributted to the “porteños”, that is people born and living in the city of Buenos Aires, rather than the whole country. The people from the northern provinces usually are depicted similary to bolivians or paraguayans (depends on the provinces).
    • In an interesting inversion, the bad reputation of the “porteños” has made that more than a few uruguayans call “porteños” to all argentinians, even if they don’t belong to the port of Buenos Aires.
  • In Spain and Latin America Argentines are stereotyped as cunning, treacherous people who enjoy taking advantage from others.
    • The most popular Argentine card game, Truco^* does not help to get rid of the reputation, as it is the art of the deceiving, the lie and the redoubling of bets.
• Argentinia is often stereotyped for having a hot, tropical climate, while it also harbors glaciers and ski centers.
• Out of all Latin American countries the Argentines have the most civilians of Italian descent: almost 60%! As such, many Italian tropes are applicable, from the food, strong Roman Catholicism ^*, emphasis on family activities, hammy and melodramatic hand-waving behaviour, crazy driving to the never ending arguments about even the smallest issues.
  • Even the Argentine accent sounds similar to Italian accents. The pronunciation and grammar notations are also very distinctive, with the use of “vos” instead of “tú”^*, the pronunciation of “y” and “ll” as “sh” (which is closer to the pronunciation of Spain’s Andalucía region) and the distinctive conjugation and intonation patterns^*. They also use distinctive interjections and modisms, like the word “che”^* which are similar to the Verbal Tic “hey”.
  • Argentines are also infamous for swearing a lot, and in a creative way. In argentinian depictions over the hispanic world, they use the word boludo (“asshole”^note) to satiety, usually althogether with the quintessential “che”, resulting in the “che, boludo”. ^*.
    • The Drives Like Crazy reputation might not be surprising, seeing that legendary Formula 1 car racing champion Juan Manuel Fangio was an Argentine.

Bolivia

• The only South American country where the founder is immediately memorable: Simon Bolivar.
• A stereotypical Bolivian image is that all women there wear bowler hats and have long black pigtails.
  • Also, they like to fight in lucha rings while wearing traditional clothes. Bowler hats included.

Brazil

• Many foreigners think Brazilians speak Spanish, while in fact it’s the largest Portuguese speaking country in the world! It’s also the only Portuguese speaking country in Latin America. In foreign films and TV shows people will always talk with a Spanish accent whenever they impersonate a Brazilian.
• Another common mistake is that The Capital Of Brazil Is Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentinia. An equally large mistake is that people assume Rio de Janeiro is the capital of Brazil, while in reality it’s Brasília.
• Whenever Brazil is depicted in foreign fiction all action will always take place in Rio de Janeiro. Expect the favelas, Christ the Redeemer Statue and Copacabana Beach to make a cameo.
  • And, oh yes, regardless of what time of year it is: it will always be carnival there!!
    • The carnival in Rio also fed Brazil’s reputation for late night parties in the streets that never seem to end. The country as a whole has a strong association with catchy and sexy dances, especially the samba, choro, conga, bossa nova, tropicalia and lambada. Some of the most famous South American musicians were Brazilians: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil, João Gilberto, Ary Barroso, Sergio Mendes,… Carmen Miranda (with her tutti frutti hat) was born in Portugal, but raised in Brazil and closely associated with the country.
    • Which also brings us to the idea that every Brazilian woman is a young, sexy, scantily clad Spicy Latina with big busoms and really nice hips/butts. They are all keen to dance and very open to sex.
• The favelas are perhaps the most negative association the country has to offer. These local slums are full with criminals, drug addicts, gang wars, con artists, pick pockets and corrupt police officers. See also the movie City of God.
• Brazil is also famous for soccer, having won The World Cup a record breaking five times. Pelé is the most famous Brazilian soccer player, even iconic in the United States, where the sport isn’t popular at all.
• Brazilians are often stereotyped as wisecracking fast-talking always-cheerful guys. Every single Brazilian loves soccer and samba more than anything else.
  • In (beat ‘em up) videogames, Brazilian characters are prevalent, and generally come in one of two flavours. Firstly, there is the Ambiguously Brown, exuberant, grinning Dance Battler type, a depiction no-doubt deriving from the native Capoeira martial art. Examples include Ricardo Maia (owner of the Pao Pao cafe, no less) and Bob Wilson from Fatal Fury and also Tekken’s Eddy Gordo and his unbelievably fanservicey student Christie Monteiro, who evokes the classic Brazilian carnival queen. The other type is the jungle-dwelling, Beast Man from the Amazon, most famously realized with Blanka, the first Brazilian character from the Street Fighter series (who’s actually quite well-loved in his native land), as well as Tam Tam & Cham Cham from Samurai Shodown and Rikuo from Darkstalkers, who’s a straight-up Creature from the Black Lagoon shout-out.
  • In (free) games played online, especially multiplayer shooters, Brazilians are considered notorious for a range of usually negative traits (a range of cheating techniques, farming, lack of skill and/or being a threat to their team, etc. Beyond the stereotypes, there are multiple reasons for their large presence in such games, including prohibitive import taxes on console games and regulations getting in the way of setting up a unique version of the game for them (as is done often in the industry, usually between Europe, Asia, and the Americas.)

Chile

• Chile: A country where old people, young people and even kids are always ready to say something sarcastic. Their characters can be stereotypically described as being snobbish, passive-aggressive, pessimistic, quite Holier Than Thou (though this one is becoming discredited ever since The Nineties), and incredibly classist. Their speech patterns also tend to be mocked (even by other Chilean people) since they talk ridiculously fast and pepper their conversations with all the “F bombs” they can put in. But mostly, they are seen by their neighbors as having an incredibly big Inferiority Superiority Complex. Always trying, but almost never quite managing, to equal the achievements of their neighbors’ citizens.
  • In regards to their neighbors, Chileans are either very Tsundere or totally hate them. (Specially polemic in the case of Peruvians and Bolivians, a bit of a Discredited Trope with Argentines as they tend to be more of Vitriolic Best Buds now… though some Chileans may team-up with Brazilians to make fun of them. And please don’t mention the deals with the Falklands, okay?.)
  • Within Chile, there are several other stereotypes of their own:
    • People from the Far North aka Norte Grande (Arica, Iquique, Antofa*gasta, Caldera, etc.) are seen as more Peruvian than Chilean. Specially if they’re from Arica or Iquique. If not, they live in the desert or regularly go hunting UFO’s in the desert.
    • People from the Nearest North aka Norte Chico (Coquimbo, La Serena) are stereotyped as lazy bums that live at the beach rather than at home and have a steady diet of fruits and Chilean pisco.
    • Valparaíso and Viña people really love to party. They also sneer at tourists and whine because everyone but them Drives Like Crazy. Oh, and they will scream at you if you call crust bread “marraqueta” instead of “pan francés”. Valparaíso people also live in the hills, in poor but very colorful wooden houses.
    • Santiago people (Santiaguinos) are seen as bitchy, spoiled, smug and specially as self-centered.
    • People from Concepción (“Penquistas”) are sometimes seen as The Rivals to Santiaguinos. This one comes from the 1800’s, when the high-class people from Santiago and Concepción fought for the leadership of the recently decolonized Chile. The rest of the Nearest South is seen as still being made more of countryside than anything else.
    • The South of Chile is made of lakes, greenery and, from Coyhaique onwards, covered in snow. People from the Island of Chiloé live all in palafito houses over the sea, and interact with all kinds of local mythical beings on a daily basis.
    • People with Mapuche heritage are seen as very Hot-Blooded, proud and stubborn.
• The country is also known for the chili pepper. In reality, Chileans don’t mind the spices that much, compared to say, Mexicans.

Colombia

• Colombia is a druglord haven full of corrupt politicians, leftist guerrillas, and right-wing death squads. Colombian expats in Venezuelan works tend to be depicted as people with Hair-Trigger Temper and a love for the Colombian folk music style Vallenato with the volume amped to max. Thanks to its export of TV soaps, Colombian Bogotanians have earned the stereotype of being simultaneously polite and smug. Also, there’s the perception that Colombians are undeservedly happy and cheery, when they should be as miserable as everybody else, or at least as miserable as they are shown on TV.
• There is also the White T-Shirt Protests, or the tendency of Colombian people protesting against the violence of the guerrillas and/or the paramilitary forces to join massive manifestations while wearing white t-shirts.
• Regarding soccer in particular, opponents of the sport often dismiss fans because there is an increasing tendency towards hooliganism since the mid-1990’s. Truth in Television also, because derbies between Millonarios, Santa Fe, Atletico Nacional, DIM, Deportivo Cali and America de Cali are all closely guarded by the police and anti-riot forces. There is enforced segregation between the fans of each team or preventing the visiting team’s fans from entering the stadium altogether to keep everyone safe; this, of course goes as well as is expected… not.
• Among other Spanish language nations Colombians are known for being uniquely adept at swearing. If a Colombian swears at you, they will do so with such an angry inflection and punch that you’ll never forget it. Somehow, rude and taboo words sound even worse when a Colombian uses them; even so, if a Colombian already has a potty mouth, you will definitely notice the difference when he/she is mad at you.
• Inside Colombia itself, there’s an impressive amount of stereotypes for each different province, with Colombians themselves being practically the only ones that can keep track of all of them. The mayor stereotypical groups consist of Rolos, Paisas, Vallunos and Costeños. Other groups exist, but the main rivalries between regions come from the four mentioned. The difficulties in land communication between cities have historically made these regions notoriously isolated from one another ^note. The four groups have grown an intense regionalism exacerbated by the media (which is known to be extremely Bogota-centrist) and more importantly by Soccer rivalries.
• Rolos or Cachacos^note are known to be extremely smug and like to look down on everyone else. They dismiss outsiders as “people from the Provinces” ^note and pride themselves for having the best Spanish dialect in the world.
• Paisas ^note are proud to a fault and seem to exalt their region with an air of superiority (Antioquians in particular), which people from other regions tend to take offense to because they make it seem that they do it just to spite everyone else ^note. They are also known to unsuccessfully dabble in seceding from the rest of the country. Paisas are often dismissed as Montañeros or De La Loma (Mountain People) and there’s the perception that they never got past their bucolic nature ^note.
  • Curiously, there is a well known stereotype regarding the women of the Coffee Axis city of Pereira in Risaralda, especially their penchant for plastic surgery and being notoriously easy to approach, to the point of being prostitutes. This stereotype has spawned many popular TV shows like “Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso”.
  • Model Natalia París also popularized a stereotype of Paisa women being notoriously dim.
• Vallunos ^note are mostly criticized due to their particular accent, sleazy women and listening to nothing but Salsa all day.
• Costeños ^note are in a nutshell subjects of every stereotype from the Caribbean; in other words, lazy, good-for-nothing party-animals. They are also lampooned for their butchering of the Spanish language. To a Costeño, everyone else in Colombia is a Cachaco, even when they’re not from Bogota.
  • Guajiros are included in the Costeños‘ stereotype, also they are what One Hundred Years of Solitude is all about; this is not a compliment. Where everyone else in the Atlantic coast progressed, Guajira remained stagnant. Also, if a person is from Guajira and he/she has money, that means that they’re involved in something shady.
  • Cesareños, also included in the Costeño’s stereotypes, live, breath, eat, digest, pee and sh*t Vallenato music. Don’t ask for a picture of a Cesareño without his accordion, because such a thing just doesn’t exist.
  • Although it’s a prevalent general stereotype of the Costeños (and an extremely offensive one, for that matter), people from Barranquilla in particular are depicted as Comeburras (“donkey-f*ckers”). A stereotype even evoked in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
  • The Costeño dancer (male or female) generally will be almost dancing in the nude, with the most frenzy-driven body seizing and jerking you’ll ever witness. Other noteworthy groups include the Pastusos, the Boyacos and the Llaneros, among others.
• Pastusos ^note are the butt of everyone’s jokes (even among themselves); their particular accent has a tone that makes them sound somewhat dim, which makes them ideal subjects of mockery. Fortunately, they take the slaps with a full face and do not shy from the jokes.
• Boyacos are the farm people of Colombia ^note; no matter what profession one might have, a Boyaco will be first and foremost regarded as a farmer ^note. Boyacá is a very cold region and local people will unequivocally wear a “Ruana”◊ to fend off the cold. Due to the altitude in Boyacá, the levels of oxygen are very low, causing a very characteristic appearance to Boyacos: there is a popular saying that say that Boyacos are “de caché e hijos de papi… digo, cachetirrojos e hijos de papicultores” ^note. Also, they’re born with a bicycle on their cribs (Truth in Television, since most of the great bicycle racers in Colombia are from Boyacá due to their lung capacity caused also by the low oxygen in Boyacá).
• Llaneros ^note do nothing all day but dance to the harp, organize blood sports involving cows and chickens, and dabble in witchcraft and blood magic (tied to the blood sports). A number of regions on the plains are under the control of the guerrillas and the paramilitary forces, making them effectively no-man’s-lands… not that anyone else in the country remembers that the plains exist!
• Chocoanos live off their dear Atrato River, even though it floods every now and then, taking all of their few possessions. Unlike the Llaneros, everyone knows about the Chocoano’s poverty and isolation and just choose to ignore them. Chocoanos are essentially the Haitians of Colombia. To make things worse, more than 90% of Chocoanos are black, adding a touch of racism to the rest of Colombia’s attitude towards them.
• People of Los Dos Santanderes are just mad with everyone.
  • People from the cities of Cucuta and San Cristobal in Venezuela are interchangeable.
• People from Cauca and Putumayo just might as well not exist at all.
• People from Tolima and Huila do nothing but eat tamales, have beauty pageants and dance Bambuco all day ^note.
  • The Opita peoples of Tolima and Huila are often parodied in television for being notoriously lazy.
• People from the Caribbean islands of San Andres and Providencia are basically Jamaicans. San Andres is the most exotic place a bare-bones Colombian vacation can aspire to. The basic policy of the Colombian government is to ignore the islands; in recent years, a diplomatic crisis has led Nicaragua to claim parts of the seas surrounding the islands, but the islanders are just too stubborn to declare themselves Central Americans… not that they’re very far from doing it.
• People of the Amazonian region are mostly seen as stone-age indigenous people. If they are in Leticia (which lies by the Amazon River) people assume that they travel everywhere by canoe.
• Demographically in general, the indigenous people in Colombia suffer a great degree of discrimination from all strata of society. To be called an Indio in Colombia has unfair derogatory overtones, as it’s linked to unwarranted propensity for violence and savagery, lack of general manners, poor taste and untidiness. Indigenous communities in Colombia were nowhere as big and developed as the great ancestral empires in Mexico, Central America and Peru, though they left a great cultural watermark for the ages (such as the Tayronas, the Caribs and the Muiscas). However, formerly small indigenous communities like the Nukak-Maku are getting greater recognition and respect regarding the uniqueness of their cultural idiosyncracies (Nukak-Maku have their own distinct language).

Galápagos Islands

• A volcanic archipelago, best known for its rich animal wild life: albatrosses, crabs, sea turtles, iguanas, penguins, flamingos, pelicans, seals, …
• Historically famous as the location where Charles Darwin developed his evolution theory.

Guyana

• If Guyana is mentioned at all, people will often mistakenly assume it’s Latin American just because it’s on the Caribbean coast of South America. In fact, Guyana is the sole English-speaking country in South America, and its border with the Caribbean coast and shared culture with other former British colonies in the Caribbean Sea results in the nation having a Caribbean-based culture.
• Since the Jonestown Massacre in 1978 it’s synonymous with religious cults and mass suicides.

Juan Fernández Islands

• A small group of islands, best known as the home of marooned 18th century sailor Alexander Selkirk who lived there for four years. His story inspired Robinson Crusoe and as a tribute one of the islands was actually called “Robinson Crusoe Island” in 1966.

Paraguay

• Paraguay: Everyone is either from Asunción or from the jungle. They do nothing but smuggle goods and steal cars from neighboring countries; also, thanks to Jose Luis Chilavert, they were considered to have Hair-Trigger Temper.
  • Also, everyone is bilingual in Spanish and Guarani, and will often speak in the latter language to confuse and troll foreigners.
  • Every Paraguayan can play the harp.

Peru

• Perú is mostly associated with the Inca culture, Andes and ancient city Macchú Picchú. The only more-or-less modern city to appear in popular culture will be Lima or Cuzco.
  • Peruvians will be stereotyped as people who speak in helium-infused squeaky voices while wearing colorful robes and funny bonnets with ear flaps. Llamas, alpacas and vicunas will wander around everywhere, pulling weird antics and spitting on tourists’s faces. They all worship the Sun.
  • During the mid-90’s, Peruvian television was exported to Colombia due to the rising demand of cable television and private parabolic antennae. As such, Colombians are very well versed in Peruvian media due to the phenomenon they refer to as Perubólica (Peru-bolic). Colombia and Peru share a frontier through the Amazon (which is sparsely populated and not particularly media-savvy), so very few people in Peru are aware of why Colombians are so good at making fun of them…?

Uruguay

• Uruguay tends to be considered just a very small and quiet Argentina, Luxembourg style. They are not thrilled with this. However, they are generally exempt from the negative Argentinean stereotyping, considered polite, open minded, friendly… and really obsessed with mate.
  • Uruguayan soccer is known in South America for the perceived tendency for rough playing, which has led their national team to be nicknamed “La Garra Charrúa”. Though well versed and world-famous, some players have had considerable trouble for taking it too far. A national team that has to play the Uruguayans has to acknowledge that they are going to leave the pitch really sore, even if they defeat the “Charrúas”.

Venezuela

• Venezuela is known for its former president Hugo Chavez and his “Chavistas”. Also known for its nationalized oil industry, for having a whole industry dedicated to winning the Miss Universe pageant, and for looooong and melodramaaaaatic Soap Operas.
  • Don’t ever bring out the topic of arepas if you happen to be talking with a Colombian and a Venezuelan; it doesn’t end well.

• Oceania is usually the “overlooked” continent. While other continents are continuously in the news for various reasons Oceania barely makes the headlines overseas. This leads to the impression that it is essentially nothing more than a quiet, peaceful holiday destination.
  • It doesn’t help that by various definitions, Oceania isn’t a “real” continent.^*
• Australia and New Zealand are usually the only Oceanic countries foreigners can summarize. The other 12 are rarely ever mentioned in fiction, save for Papua New Guinea (see below).
• Australia and New Zealand claim the other country is having sex with sheep. All we know is that the sheep are slu*ts.
• Australia and New Zealand may appear to argue a lot but mess with one, you’ve got two very PO’ed countries to deal with. The ANZACs – it’s Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, not one or the other.

Australia

• See Land Down Under for the primary page on stereotypes of Australia.
• For starters, you can’t talk about Australia before mentioning at least once that Kangaroos Represent Australia. These animals are practically synonymous with the entire country.
  • Australia may be own the few countries where the animal population is more famous than the citizens. Since they have a very unique fauna: expect these animals to make a cameo appearance whenever the country is depicted. So, watch out for kangaroos and wallabies, koalas, kookaburras, Tasmanian devils, emus, echidnas, dingoes, platypuses, funnel-web spiders, black widow spiders,… Jokes about invasive species such as rabbits, cane toads and ostriches are also very popular and unfortunately have been Truth in Television.
    • In the early 2010’s Australian wildlife became meme-worthy. Australian wildlife is all huge and savage and poisonous and will kill you in a heartbeat. It outnumbers the humans and actively hunts them. While it’s true that a variety of deadly creatures do inhabit Australia, most of them live in the outback, in largely untamed wilderness. Roughly 90% of Australia’s population lives within 15 miles of the coast, well away from said wildlife. However the funnel-web spider does live in Sydney, and has cause injuries and even death to humans.
• One of the most persistent stereotypical ideas about Australia is that its capital is thought to be Sydney. It’s actually Canberra.
  • When in Sydney, always make sure that Australia’s most famous monument, the Opera House, is in frame. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is also essential.
  • Expect references made to the fact that the center of the country is literally and figure of speech deserted. You can travel for miles without meeting a human being. No wonder the car crashes and chases in Mad Max were so easy to make without police interfering. This also makes the country ideal for road movies, like the earlier mentioned “Mad Max”, The Adventures Of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, …
  • Some scenes taking place at a beach with surfers, blonde bathing suit wearing babes and sharks making a cameo appearance are not uncommon.
  • And, of course, a visit to Ayers Rock is also mandatory.
• Awesome Aussie: Australians are always stereotyped as white, blond, six feet tall, rough, unsophisticated, wildlife experts, bushwackers and obsessive beer drinkers. They wear a khaki shirt, short pants and a large cowboy-style hat with corks hanging from it. Their most priceless possession is a boomerang and/or a large knife. If not trying to catch crocodiles they will be barbecueing, surfing or playing the didgeridoo.
  • Stock expressions are “Crikey”, “G’day, mate”, “Pommie bastard”, “That’s bonzer, mate”, “Crack a tinnie” and “Put another shrimp on the barbie” (despite the term prawn being used for shrimp in Australia).
  • Most of these stereotypes are based on images reflected in Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Hunter, Mad Max and the Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch “Bruces”, where where all Australians are named Bruce.
  • Australian accents are often imitated badly in popular culture, being a weird Kiwi/Pom cross or something closer to a stereotypical South African accent.
• Australian Aborigines are stereotyped as nomadic tribesman who live off the land. They are generally portrayed as hospitable. In popular culture the men will always have beards and have a nasal bone stuck thru their nose. Also expect them to walk around in tribal dress, while most Aborigines nowadays wear the same casual clothing their fellow white Australians do.
• In the 19th century the United Kingdom sent some of their convicts to Australia to work in forced labor in penal colonies. This has lead to the idea that Australians are all convicts, or have at least inherited the worst aspects of their convict ancestors.
• New Zealanders seem to think of Australians as good-hearted but lazy. Public holidays are serious business.
• An unfortunate sporting stereotype developed in recent years is of Australians as very sore losers who can dish out banter when they’re on top, but can’t take it when it comes back on them – from a Kiwi or British POV. In context, all three nations share a good deal of banter regarding sporting achievement, and for years Australia always shone in most events that the countries compete in together. This resulted in “pommy/kiwi-bashing”, crowing and arrogant chat about the opposition’s poor performance. However, as the tide has turned, with England as current holders of The Ashes and an uncharacteristically shocking performance by Aussies at the 2012 Olympics versus both rivals, rather than accepting the banter that they are now on the receiving end of, Aussies stand accused of a highly un-sporting lack of humility and much self-pity.
  • Some Australia media at the 2012 Olympics decided to claim New Zealand’s medals (like everything else) by lumping them together with Australia’s and publishing the count as “Oceania” or “Aus Zealand”.
• In (beat em’ up) videogames, Australians are mostly depicted as hulking bruisers, with examples including Graig Marduk from Tekken, Raiden/Big Bear from The King of Fighters (complete with Ayer’s Rock/Uluru home-stage) and shark-wrestling fisherman Jeffry McWild from Virtua Fighter. Rocker zombie Lord Raptor, of Darkstalkers fame, provides a variation, and is perhaps inspired by home-grown supergroup AC/DC. Then, there’s also Saxton Hale…
• Stereotypes within Australia:
  • Northern Territorians are troppo.
  • Tasmanian is not considered to be part of Australia and all its citizens are inbred.
  • Queenslanders are redneck banana-benders.
  • South Australians are all gay.
  • Adelaide is boring and its citizens eat crows.
  • Sydney’s the gay capital and/or “the city of brides”.
  • Perth is 10 years and 3 hours behind Sydney.
• Thanks to “Neighbours” and “Home & Away” Australia has also a reputation for soap operas.
• And thanks to Ozploitation Australian movies are often thought to be explicitly violent action movies sent in deserted Australian backlands with lots of Gratuitous Nudity.

New Zealand

• New Zealanders are usually portrayed as being Maori. Usually the Maori sticks out his tongue or makes ugly faces.
• White New Zealanders are rural farmers, rugby players, horse racers or workmen who have a gift for solving every kind of problem. Supposedly a Kiwi man can do anything with Number 8 wire.
• Characters who visit the country will always encounter New Zealand’s national birds, the kiwi. The animal has become a national symbol in New Zealand and New Zealanders are often nicknamed “kiwis” as a result. This is despite the fact that many New Zealanders have never seen a kiwi, especially not in the wild—they are both very shy and very rare.
• New Zealanders are often depicted (mostly in either New Zealand or other Commonwealth nations) as obsessive world travelers and backpackers, getting absolutely anywhere armed with backpack and travel guide. This comes from the New Zealandian trend of going abroad for a year or two after finishing university. They’re also champion mountain climbers/trampers (aka hikers).
• They are supposedly interested solely in the three Rs: Rugby, Racing, and beeR. Rugby and beer are still popular, but racing has declined in popularity.
• New Zealand women are depicted as being more independent and somewhat ugly (epitomized in former Prime Minister Helen Clark). New Zealand was the first nation to permanently give women the vote, and at one point all high-level government positions were filled by women.
• Very few people will recognise a New Zealander unless told; some jokes will probably be made about the bizarre-sounding (to foreigners) accent, including pronouncing short E’s (as in dress) as short I’s (as in kit) and short I’s as schwas (the A in comma), and attempts at guessing their background will vary from British to Australian.
• Invariably, a joke will be made about the number of sheep in the country being greater than the number of people. Sheep in New Zealand outnumber humans by seven-to-one.^note
• Their alleged fondness for sheep tends to be the most common point of mockery.
• More recently, New Zealand has become famous through its association with the The Lord of the Rings movie, making people think of it as being one big film set.
  • Foreigners also think New Zealand has a sizable population of 3ft 6in (1.07 cm) tall people. This is partially true, but New Zealanders call them five-year-olds.
• Due to their performance in various 20th and 21st century wars (especially WWI and Vietnam), ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand forces) are typically depicted as badass soldiers.
• Within New Zealand:
  • Aucklanders see the rest of New Zealand as rural, unsophisticated, and backwards. Meanwhile, the rest of New Zealand sees Aucklanders are brash, arrogant, latte-sipping people, living in houses with million-dollar price tags.
  • Dunedin is seen as full of poor students (who are always partying and “getting on the piss”) and Scots.
  • Wellington is thought to be populated by hipsters. Not to mention that the city is constantly in the grip of a gale north-westerly.
  • Cantabrians are stereotyped as conservative – religious (at least compared to the rest of the country) and slightly racist. They take rugby seriously, even by New Zealand standards. They also earned the status of Iron Woobie after the Christchurch earthquakes.
  • When Aucklanders aren’t the butt of the joke, Hamiltonians fill the role as residents of a (supposedly) hopelessly boring city where nothing exciting happens, except maybe outbreaks of STDs.

Papua New Guinea

• Despite being one of the most heterogenous nations in the world with hundreds of ethnic groups present in the country most people see it as a country full of black Papuans living in tribes. They all wear grass skirts, feathers and leaves and rejoice in cannibalism. Another pastime is body painting and/or tattooing.
• The entire country consists of nothing more than a bunch of volcanoes, coral reefs, beaches and unpenetrable tropical rainforests.
• A negative association with Papua New Guinea is its sexual violence towards women and children. Rape, gang rape and sexual abuse of minors are rampant.
• Foreigners will often confuse it with New Guinea, which is part of Asia.

Polynesia

• A bunch of tropical islands full with primitive tribal communities who are a mix of Maoris and Papua stereotypes. Palm trees are present with coconuts falling on your head. Tattoos are popular. All women have long black hair and wear a flower in it. Local people will be dancing Hula and Luaus. Despite being a subregion of Oceania many of the individual isles are (former) colonies, part of other continents in Asia, South America, North America or Europe.
• Some isles you might have heard from: Fiji, Tonga, French Polynesia, Samoa, Tahiti, the Solomon Isles, the Cook Isles and the Easter Island. Apart from the Easter Island, best known for its huge Moai statues, most people wouldn’t be able to name one specifically unique thing about these isles.
• Mostly associated with tranquility and a trouble free atmosphere. Everyone who lives there enjoys living a simple life, close to nature, goes swimming or sailing by pirogue in the ocean and enjoys the fact that the world doesn’t seem bigger than the isle itself. Yet it’s not always that peaceful: hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and earth quakes are not uncommon problems. Also, the atols are a frequent target for nuclear tests.
• Apart from that it’s best known for famous Americans and Europeans who paid a visit to the region or lived there for several years: explorers (Jacob Roggeveen, James Cook and Thor Heyerdahl), anthropologists (Margaret Mead) and cultural icons (Paul Gauguin, Jacques Brel, Marlon Brando,…).

Antarctica

• Best known for harboring a lot of penguins. Other polar animals like orcas, whales, colossal squids, albatrosses and seals live there too. Mind you, there are no Eskimos or polar bears here.
• The only continent that is officially a nature resort. It’s basically nothing more than ice with here and there a bit of tundra vegetation. The climate is extremely harsh. The coldest temperature on Earth has been recorded here. There are also heavy winds, especially along the coastlines.
  • This also explains why the country lacks an indigenous population. No humans live there, except for scientists in polar stations who do research. And even they only stay there for a few months at the time, before being replaced or alternated by other colleagues. It’s almost a punishment to be there (Reassigned to Antarctica).
    • The continent is perhaps most infamous for the failed expedition of Robert Falcon Scott, who tried to become the first man reaching the South Pole, but was beaten by Roald Amundsen. As Scott tried to return he and his entire crew died along the way. See also the film Scott Of The Antarctic (not to be confused with the similarly titled Monty Python sketch, by the way.)
• Also known for showing the Aurora Australis (“southern light”) in the sky.
• Since the 1980s it is also infamous for the hole in the ozone layer.
• In popular culture Mysterious Antarctica is often used for harboring unknown viruses (Who Goes There?, At the Mountains of Madness), civilizations (Green Antarctica) and/or monsters under the ice (Godzilla in Godzilla Final Wars, Gorath, The Thing (1982)”, …)

Asia

What a stereotypical continent!

The largest continent on Earth. Famous for their rich cultural traditions and the first civilizations in history. Also the birth place of the major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, … Roughly Asia can be divided in three large parts: the Middle East (Arabic countries), South Asia (best known for Hindu countries like India) and the Far East/East Asia. Of course, this is a very narrow summarization. For starters: Russia, which is considered to be a European country, stretches out over most of the northern part of Asia. Despite not being an Asian country it still takes up the biggest chunk of the continent and is in fact even the largest country on Earth. Still, to most people Asia is mostly associated with the Far East. The Middle East (North Africa excluded)

• To most people the Middle East is just one large desert. Not entirely true, as Lebanon, Turkey and Iran have jungles and mountains.
  • This also brings up many desert clichés. Characters will be Crossing the Desert by camel or dromedary under the hot scorching sun. Typical obstacles when crossing the Impassable Desert are heat strokes, intense thirst, sand storms, whirl winds, robbers and fata morganas of oasis that are simply not there. You might faint from hyperthermia, step on some Scary Scorpions, rattle snakes or a Giant Spider, feel Squick from seeing skeletons from previous unlucky travellers, sink into quicksand or lose all hope when Circling Vultures appear. If they are lucky they’ll find a real oasis, a city or are rescued by a Bedouin Rescue Service. When they are really lucky they might also discover oil sources or hidden treasures beneath the sand. But this too can turn out to be a Hollywood Mirage in the end…
  • Contrary to what popular culture wants you to believe it’s not always sunny in the Middle East: reports of rain and even snow are not uncommon.
• All Middle Eastern countries are of course Qurac cities, ruled by sheikhs, sultans, shahs, califs, vizirs or evil wizards. The names of the fictional countries in this region all end in “-stan”. Even though all of the real countries with such names are in Central and South Asia. (Stan is an Urdu word, Urdu being an Indo-Aryan language from Pakistan.) It may be mentioned that this Qurac’s place is “between Persia and Iran”.
• Popular Middle Eastern city images are temples, mosques and minarets. No image of the Middle East is complete without a scene where a muezzin is calling/chanting the ritual morning prayer.
• Most people know the Middle East as the setting for The Bible, The Talmud and The Qur’an. It was the breeding ground for the founders of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam,…, yet to most people it seems to be just a region full of Muslims.
• In Ancient Mesopotamia, Assyria, Persia, Babylon and Phoenicia there were cities, art and a justice system centuries before much of the rest of the world had such luxuries. During the Middle Ages muslim scholars preserved many ancient texts and enhanced them with numerous important discoveries in the fields of math, astronomy and medicine. Various Western words are of Arabic origin and the positional base-10 numeral system had its origins in India but was transmitted to the western world through Muslim travelers and merchants. For this reason it is quite inaccurate and simple minded to describe the Middle East as an inherently primitive and backwards region.
• The oldest traditional stereotypes associated with the Middle East are derived from 8th to 18th century history and feature sultans, caliphs, grand viziers, shahs and sheiks dressed in turbans and long robes, typical of these centuries. Most common are images borrowed from Arabian Nights, including a Flying Carpet, dreamy palaces, story telling princesses, waterpipes, harems full of sexy belly dancing women, eunuch guards, thieving gangs with daggers and/or scimitars , people hiding inside giant jars, caves full of treasure, the giant bird Roc, people climbing on an erect rope and djinns fulfilling wishes. (See also Arabian Nights Days).
• The films of Rudolph Valentino like The Sheik also provided the image of the young, sexy Arab prince abducting Western women into his tent.
• Another popular image is the Bazaar of the Bizarre. An exotic street bazaar and flea market will feature all kinds of strange, forbidden Black Market or fantastic items. A typical Arabic stock character is the cunning merchant who will welcome you in his store, haggle over the prices and afterwards sent you away with more useless junk than you originally intended to buy. If you want to register a complaint the bazaar will have vanished.
  • Just like Indian or Pakistani people, Arabic people are frequently depicted as being shopkeepers or supermarket managers. In certain parts of the United States, Arabic-speakers are specifically stereotyped as owners of gas stations, with the ethnicity varying based on location. In Michigan, they tend to be Lebanese or Iraqi; in New Jersey, they tend to be Egyptian Copts.
  • In Venezuela (and some Caribbean countries) there were a lot of street peddlers and shopkeepers of Arabic origin, all under the generic label of “turco” (Turkish) despite most of them being Lebanese or Syrian. There is a phrase, “con el turco atrás” (“with the Turkish man behind”) which means that a person is pursued by their creditors, based in the real phenomenon of these sellers literally staking the ones in debt.
• Negative stereotypes about Arabs are that they are all supposedly agressive fanatical assassins. A typical image found in old books, films, comics and cartoons is that Arabs out of nowhere will pull out a dagger, sabre or scimitar. When they attack they will ululate, praise Allah or shout gibberish with many “ch”-sounds and heavy emphasis on the letter “r”.
  • The Middle East has become synonymous with bloodshed over the centuries. Especially since the second half of the 20th century Arabs are stereotyped as fanatical Muslims still stuck in religious traditions. They will be slaughtering sheep in the kitchen, beat and force their women into submission, have many children and will have sex with goats or camels on occasion. They are easily agitated and will haggle, shout, demand respect while not showing it to others, fight, kill, call out for jihads, suicide attacks, plane hijackings, terrorist bomb attacks and/or a Middle Eastern Coalition. Specific berserk buttons are infidels, Jews, scantily clad women, Westerners (especially Americans) and blasphemous remarks. When victorious they will ululate, yell “Allah Akbar” (“Allah is great”) and shoot in the air. These images are frequently exploited in racist, extreme right wing Western propaganda, as if moderate, calm, religiously tolerant or peaceful Arabs are non-existant.
  • Arabs will often be Mistaken for Terrorist, solely based on their looks.
• Positive stereotypes about Arabs are that they produce beautiful carpets, exquisite calligraphy and mysterious mesmerizing music that can last from one to three hours in length. Adding to the Oriental atmosphere are lutes, an oboe, tambourines, rhythmic percussion and sometimes a singer who sounds hypnotized himself.
• Another stereotypical image is the rich Arab Oil Sheikh. He will have a huge beard, sunglasses, a turban (often mocked by Western comedians as being a towel or a diaper). Usually he is sitting in a tent and smoking a water pipe. He will take great pride in owning several cars, horses and a harem.
• All Arabs will praise or mention Allah in almost every sentence they speak. Other popular stock phrases are: “Salaam”, “Peace be upon him”, “May Allah be with you, my friend”, …
• All Arabs are named Ali, Muhammad (after the Prophet), Mustafa, Ghassim, Jafar, Akbar, Abu, Ottoman, Hakim, Amin, Adel, Sinbad, Hussain, Ahmed, Achmed, Tariq or Murad.
• Arab women are either overdressed to the point of being nothing more than a burka ((which are Pakistani in origin, not from Afghanistan and certainly not Arab) or will be scantily clad and sexy belly dancers. They carry vases on their heads, wear henna or special piercings. They will be named Aïcha, Farah, Naima, Yasmine or Fatima.
• Arabs have their own set of stereotypes about one another:
  • Bedouins have two stereotypes, one old, one new:
    • The old stereotype is of the Bedouins as noble desert nomads, living in tents and tending their goats/sheep/other livestock, proud and tough but honorable, and willing to help travelers who come their way and show them some kindness. They are also seen as the reserve of the ancient Arab culture; particular emphasis is given to the supposed closeness of their speech to the speech of the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
    • The new stereotype is of the Bedouins as marginal, uncivilized merchants in guns and drugs (particularly hashish and other forms of cannabis), who are all-too-fond of using their products (both kinds). They are sometimes also seen as traitors for working with Israel in one way or another (most often, dealing in Israeli weed).
  • In the Arabic countries themselves people from the Gulf States are typically portrayed as being filthy-rich lecherous drunks and drug addicts, who hide behind religion to justify their sinning. The guy from Saudi Arabia or the UAE or Kuwait who goes to Egypt or Morocco to marry another woman on the sly is practically a trope in itself.
• In (beat ‘em up) videogames, for whatever reason, there are a number of ambiguously Middle Eastern characters. That is, their design evokes the look of the region, and a few cultural clues may be mentioned, but mention of actual nationality is outright avoided. Examples include Zafina, from Tekken, who’s background and cut-scenes hint at an Egyptian origin, but who has “unknown” listed against birthplace on her official bio. Word of God states that she is of “Middle Eastern” origin, but no more information has been provided. Algol from the Soul Series is another example – his name is clearly Arabic (literally “the ghoul”), as well as his move-list, and his story is an homage to the Sumerian (modern day Iraq) Gilgamesh epic, but his origin is never confirmed outright. Zasalamel, also from the Soul Series, is similarly ambiguous, with a look that references Egypt (his ibis-head scythe especially) and a movelist named after several Babylonian gods. The incongruently name Sinclair from Art of Fighting has an unmistakably Arabic look, complete with harem-pants, head scarf and a scimitar, although her country of origin remains unknown. Why the country of origin of these “Middle Eastern” characters remains unknown isn’t clear, but it could be to avoid Unfortunate Implications in a sensitive global region, or simply to enhance the mystery of certain characters.
  • Pullum Purna of the Street Fighter series, who hails from Saudi Arabia, is one of the few Middle Eastern characters with an actual nationality, and of course they gave her a stereotypical background (belly dancers and Oil Sheikhs and all of that)…

Afghanistan

• War, war, and more war. Everyone is either a terrorist, a victim of terrorism, a victim of a foreign army, or an oppressed woman. The Taliban’s draconian rules will have been in place for untold centuries, never mind that the Taliban have only existed since the 1990s. Every great empire in history feels the need to invade, only to get burned by Afghanistan’s sheer unconquerableness. Invading armies range from Alexander’s Greeks, to Mongols, to Victorian Brits, to Russian commies, to the present-day NATO forces.

Iran

• Back when the country was named Persia it was known for the Shah, Persians with Pistols, Persian cats and Persian carpets.
• Iranians are seen by the West as religious fanatics. Ayatollah Khomeini did a lot to create this image. Another stereotype is that Iranians are terrorists who want to do nothing more then blow up America.
• Iranians are commonly mistaken for Arabs and receive the same treatment. When someone does bother to note the difference, Persians (the men, anyway) will be stereotyped similarly to the so-called Guidos. Think tacky “club” outfits with lots of gold chains, hair gel, cheap cologne, over-priced designer sunglasses, etc. South Park did a version of this in their 300 spoof. The track-suit “jock” variant of Guidos isn’t usually associated with Persians quite as often, however. There’s also the over-zealous Shi’a Muslim guy in the street, whipping himself until he draws blood (although it’s actually illegal in Iran)” stereotype, but that tends to overlap with Arab stereotypes.
• Iran’s western neighbors—particularly the Arabs—regard them as stuck-up know-it-alls who aren’t willing to give credit where credit is due. The Iranians, for their part, tend to regard the Arabs and the Turkic peoples as somewhat barbaric fools, who were still nomadic nobodies at the time that Persia ruled everywhere.
• Many stereotypes about Persia/Iran originated in Ancient Greece and proved to be remarkably enduring, being the Trope Maker or Trope Codifier for Orientalism in general.

Iraq

• Back when the country was still called Babylon it was mostly known for its Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven World Wonders. Iraqis still feel proud about their ancient history (Iraq being Mesopotamia, i.e. the oldest civilization in the world).
• Since 1990 the West knows Iraq primarily for the Gulf Wars and Saddam Hussein.
• Within the Arabic countries themselves the Iraqis are seen as the poor buggers. Naturally, seen as badass, and a bit tribal, but that’s about all that can be said about them. Their dialect is noted for being difficult to understand, but also very cool, or at least intimidating (kind of like a Scottish accent in English).

Israel

• Most clichés about the country are derived from The Bible or the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even though Israel has a large Christian and Muslim community the Jewish community is always remembered foremostly.
  • Most locations Israel (and Palestine) are known for are in essence temples or holy sites, like Bethlehem, Mount Zion, Masada, Al-Asqa Mosque, The Lions’ Gate, King David’s Tomb, the Armenian Quarter, The Wailing Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The Damascus Gate, and the Dome of the Rock. Only the West Bank and Gaza Strip are more famous now as conflict zones than for their historical merit.
  • The one location that exists without a strong holy or violent association attached to it is the Dead Sea, which is actually a lake, by the way. It’s famous for its high salt level which makes people able to float on it without being able to sink. And even this location is actually not just Israelian or Palestinian, but also bordering Jordan.
• All Israelis are Jewish in ethnicity and religion.
  • All Jews Are Ashkenazi, All Jews Are Cheapskates… just see all the tropes listed at A Nice Jewish Index.
  • Israelis are are seen as a Proud Warrior Race who know five different ways to kill you before you can take a breath. See Badass Israeli and Israelis with Infrared Missiles
  • Israeli men are either young and athletic, or old men with long beards.
  • Israeli women are all deadly beautiful, bisexual, violent, Action Girl. At least until they get married, at which point they mysteriously transform into a haggish Jewish Mother.
  • Israelis themselves have some stereotypes of Israelis, namely that they are honest—even blunt—to the point of rudeness, loudmouthed, are overly opinionated (to the point where they say “two Israelis, three opinions”), and are quick to argue about anything.
• Palestinians are all Muslims who wear Yasser Arafat scarfs.
  • Within the Arabic countries themselves the Palestinians are seen…well… again as poor buggers. Also known as being crazy-tough and very proud.^note Also noted for being crazy-smart; Palestinians who were expelled from their land but managed to get out of the country tended to take advantage of educational opportunities to get ahead, leading to a disproportionate number of Palestinian doctors and teachers in much of the Arab world. The similarity to the Jews—who similarly scattered (under duress if not direct threat of force) out of more or less the same territory and took up education as a means to counteract the effects of discrimination in the lands in which they found themselves—has not been lost on Palestinians, who have a particularly strong appreciation for irony.
• Regarding the Arab-Israeli Conflict:
  • Team Israel’s view: Israel is a plucky little freedom-loving democracy constantly under threat from evil Palestinian terrorists who love throwing rocks and bombs around. If not being threatened from within the country will have to strike back against non-freedom-loving dictatorships ten times its size.
  • Team Palestine’s view: Israel is a Nazi apartheid state where evil, racist imperialists mow down innocent Palestinians who were actually living in this country centuries before the Jewish population got their own state.
  • Actual Israelis’ view: Israel has a lot of problems, of which the Palestinian issue is just one. Heck, a lot of these Palestinians are decent guys, and excellent employees, as long as they stay on their side of the line. Anyone who can keep things stable while we figure out what to do in the future will get our support.
  • Actual Palestinians’ view: Israel is the occupier, yes, and they kill our people, but we’re not about to deny we have some bad eggs who go out and kill their innocents. A lot of these Israelis are just ordinary folks, and truth be told they can be pretty nice employers as long as they stay on their side of the line (sure, it’d be nice if it wasn’t always them employing us, but one step at a time, guys). Heck, we’ve even learned to like matzo. We’d just like a little dignity. Can we have a deal now?

Jordan

• Best known for the historical city Petra.

Lebanon

• Within the Arabic countries themselves they are seen as being tough and resilient, loving life despite the crappy hand they’ve been dealt. Known as the leaders in the Arab world for good old-fashioned drunken debauchery (without the taint of hypocrisy that goes with Gulf revelers—Lebanon is 1/3-1/2 Christian and many self-identified Muslims are pretty much secular); despite this, also known for Hezbollah, (yes, Beirut is a conflicted city)—whose members are reputed for also being able to have a good time without alcohol (although, as is common in the Arab world, that doesn’t include hashish…). Also noted as shrewd traders and businessmen, with contacts everywhere (quite true; there are four times as many Lebanese outside Lebanon than in it). Lebanese women, according to stereotype, are good-looking, uncovered, and kind of loose.
  • For a while in Australia, Lebanese men (especially Muslim ones) were stereotyped as criminals and gang rapists. This was especially common during the Cronulla riots, though it seems to have died down.

Saudi Arabia

• Usually stereotyped as a country full of oil sheiks.
• Otherwise best known for Mecca.

Syria

• Within the Arabic countries themselves they are seen as the more serious cousins of the Lebanese, sharing the same quasi-Camp accent that belies their inherent Badassery, but without the fondness for just having a good time. They are also known for being intensely proud. Syrian women, according to stereotype, are even better-looking than the Lebanese, but more conservative.

Turkey

• Turkey forms the border between Europe and Asia, symbolized by the Bosporus. To this day there are ongoing discussions whether it should be considered part of Europe or not? The same argument is made about Israel. Both Turkey and Israel compete along with the Eurovision song contest, yet none of them are part of the European Union. Usually Turkey is considered to be part of the European continent, while Israel is already the Middle East.
  • Turkey is also seen as a Muslim country not too different from other Middle Eastern nations. While most of the population are Muslims the county is in fact a democratic, secular state with no official state religion and even freedom of religion and conscience, specifically stated in their constitution.
• The reputation of the Turks is kind of history-dependent.
  • During most of the Antiquity it was known for Anatolia and its Anatolian civilization.
  • After the fall of the Roman Empire it was known for the Byzantine Empire.
  • The Ottoman Empire was the most famous and powerful Turkish empire in history.
  • People familiar with World War One know Turkey for Gallipoli and the Dardanelles.
  • Since the 1920s the world knows at least one historically important Turk: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey and also modernizer of its culture and society. He is still seen as a hero by the Turkish population and an someone who should not be criticized at all.
• Today Turkey is mostly famous for Istanbul, which used to be called Byzantium first and later Constantinople. The city is well known for the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace (made famous by the film Topkapi) and the Basilica Cisterne, which is a famous underground water reservoir. Foreigners often think it’s the capital, which is actually Ankara, the only other well known location in Turkey. Ankara in itself is best known for animals like the Angora cat, Angora rabbit, Angora goat and Anatolian shepherd.
• Turkey also has one of the most recognizable flags in the world: a white moon and a small star seen against a red background.
• In popular culture Turks are often portrayed wearing a fez. In reality this hatwear has been banned since Ataturk modernized the country in 1924. If they are worn it will be part of a traditional ceremony, not everyday life.
• Romanians and other Eastern Europeans tend to see Turks as shrewd merchants, food shop keepers and peddlers of all fakes imaginable in the world. But this is based strictly on Istanbul, Ankara and other few modern Europeanized cities and the migration of Turk businessmen towards Europe after The Eighties.
• Turks are often portrayed as being very proud of their country, history and heritage. The negative end of this stereotype caricatures them as people who have a supreme genocidal hatred for Armenians, Greeks and Kurds.
  • Turkish women tend to be depicted as bellydancers.
• Since a “soft-Islamist” government took power in Turkey, the image in the Middle East has been influenced by their primary cultural export: Soap Operas featuring rich settings, convoluted family-related melodrama (just like they like it!), and fanservice beyond imagining (the star of Gümüsh, Kivanc Tatliug is so hot several women in the Arab world were Driven to Suicide when they heard he was getting married). Turkey has since become a soft-power powerhouse in the Arab world.
• A very old but very enduring stereotype of Turkey is that of a land of hedonistic pleasures: hookahs, strong coffee, Turkish delights (very sweet and tough to chew candy), veiled belly-dancers and the infamous Turkish baths, where you can take a sauna. In popular culture the Turkish massage will always be given by a huge moustached Turk who beats heavily with his fists on the back of his relaxing customer.
• The country is also famous for Sufi whirling, a specific dance style practiced by dervishes of the Sufi Islam. It’s typified by men wearing a felt cap a, a sikke and a white dress, the dhikr. While they dance around in circles the dhikr whirls along.
  • Another typical musical phenomenon are the Ottoman military bands mehterân, whose music has been famous for so many centuries that even Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven have tried to imitate the sounds, especially the Turkish stop, in their own compositions.
• Since the film Midnight Express” (1978) Turkish prisons do not have a very good reputation…
• Another negative reputation associated with the country are frequent reports of disregard for human rights, with people being arrested, tortured and executed for protesting against the government.
• Turkey has also gained a reputation for plagiarizing films and comic strips from other countries and putting them into a weird amateurish context. Though sometimes titles like “Turkish Star Wars” or “Turkish Rambo” are just slapped on the movies by Western salesmen, it cannot be denied that the similarities in plot, characters, soundtrack,… are sometimes perplexing. These movies are usually cheap, badly edited and have soundtracks that often jumpcut to another track when a scene abruptly changes. You’ll also often notice instrumental music for which no copyright permission was paid. This would probably not be that notable, if it weren’t for the fact that the makers often use very famous and recognizable melodies that you can immediately identify.
• And, to conclude, in the English language Turkey cannot be mentioned without making an Incredibly Lame Pun about turkey birds.

South Asia

• South Asia and South-East Asia are known for their wildlife: The mountainous areas of Mongolia, Tibet and Southern Russia will be full of yaks. The jungles will be chuck full with macaques, gibbons, lemurs, langurs, proboscis monkeys (famous for their noses), orang-utans, tigers, civet cats, black bears, cranes, salamanders, catfish, komodo dragons, tapirs, gharials (crocodiles with small snouts) and the kantjil (mousedeer or chevrotain). The rest is brimful with archipelagoes, volcanoes and bamboo. Cycloons, tornadoes, floods, monsoon rains and earth quakes will frequently ravage the country.
• Economically, the area has been known internationally for centuries for the trade of spices like pepper, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Rice, tea and rubber are also prominent export products.

India and Pakistan

• Indians are often confused with Native Americans as a pun.
• Both countries are often depicted as if they’re more or less the same. With one important stereotypical distinction: All Indians are Hindu, all Pakistanis are Muslim. Sometimes Indian Muslims are acknowledged (although mostly in works dealing specifically about Hindu-Muslim tension), but Sikhs rarely are, despite one of the most stereotypical depictions of Indians (guys with turbans and big beards) being very much based around Sikhs—to say nothing of the Prime Minister being Sikh. Jains, Buddhists, and Christians are almost never mentioned (this despite there actually being more Indian Christians than Sikhs).
• India and Pakistan are also known for being horribly poor. People live in slums or rural backwaters, where they farm with oxen. They will all travel by train since they can’t afford it any other way. And even then most train passengers will simply climb or hold on to themselves on top or on side of the train. Essentially, it’s still The Raj but without so many upper-class British people.
• Sim Sim Salabim: The countries also bring up images of very devout gurus, yogis, swamis, fakirs, snake charmers and other people who seem to be a cross between a philosopher, a Messiah, a cult leader, an illusionist or just someone who’s difficult to understand from a Western perspective. Usually these people spent their time chanting mantras or spouting off wise aphorisms, in search of enlightment. They will be able to do all sorts of magical tricks like hypnotizing people, fly on a carpet, levitate, meditate, walk barefoot on burning coals, climb on an erect rope (Indian rope trick), stick knives inside their body, make cobras “dance” to the sound of their flutes or go without food for months! Sometimes they bury themselves underground with only their head or hands sticking out- or- in even more bizarre antics: with just their head stuck underground while the rest of their body remains above the ground in a stiff and upright position. They’re able to twist their arms and legs in all kinds of seemingly uncomfortable positions. When they sit down or lie down they’ll use a bed of nails.
  • Indian and Pakistani religions and cults are usually hardly distinguished from each other (and often mixed in with New Age stuff). In the end they all worship the most well known Hindu deities in the Western World: Shiva, Brahma, Kali, Vishnu or Ganesha. They all practice yoga and veganism, believe in reincarnation and worship holy cows. They’re usually two perspectives in Western popular culture. Either it’s treated as being more deep, meaningful, spiritual and philosophical than other religions, or it’s just dismissed as mindless scary brainwashing.
• Many images of India are derived from the ancient mysterious exotic days, usually overlapping with Middle Eastern Arabian Nights imagery.
• Other stereotypes are derived from 19th and 20th century British colonial times, for example: people going tiger hunting while riding an elephant. Jungle Book also did a lot to create the Western idea about India: jungles, bamboo, tigers, Indian elephants and rhinoceroses, cobras, wolves, feral children,…
• Indian or Pakistani men all wear turbans. A long thick beard may be mandatory, but a moustache will do too.
  • Indian or Pakistani women are all young, slim, long black haired women with a gopi dot on the forehead, dressed in saris. Expect a big deal to be made of their innocent/virginity; if they have a romantic partner, chances are it will be forbidden. And if they marry they will be child brides.
    • When Indian couples have sex it’s all kinds of Anatomically Impossible Sex positions learned from the Kama Sutra.
    • There are also a few very offensive stereotypes of Pakistani men as a whole, particularly in the UK following media coverage of incidents where several large gangs of Pakistani men have groomed and sexually abused young white girls. The high profile nature of these cases, and the fact that the media mentions statistics like “Asian men make up 3% of the British population and 25% of all sex crimes”, encourages belief that Pakistani men are all paedophile rapists.
• All Indians and Pakistanis eat rice, hot spices and curry which will burn your throat.. No miracle they sometimes go without food for months or simply starve to death.
• Modern stereotypical images of Indians and Pakistani depict them as shopkeepers, taxi drivers, workers in the “Indian” food industry (generally but not always Bangladeshi) or supermarket store clerks.
• Another modern image is the Bollywood Nerd or Operator from India.
• All Indian movies are, of course, Bollywood movies. They will all be made in Bombay and feature a lot of young Indian men and women singing and dancing to a catchy and hypnotizing beat. The stories are usually romances, but the musical numbers are more important. In fact: the couples hardly every kiss each other! Usually the woman will sing in a very high pitched voice. Everything always has a bad acoustic echo to it and seems to be recorded on a scratchy soundtrack.
  • Apart from Bollywood soundtracks most music in India will be sitar music, usually by Ravi Shankar. It will usually drone on for hours and bring the listener into a spiritual trance.
• No visit to India is complete without showing the Taj Mahal!
• The Ganges river will also be shown, but only when Hindus are washing themselves in the “holy” river.
• The monsoon seasons are also a point of reference, with either not enough rain or too much of it for months!

East Asia

• People from this part of Asia often suffer from Interchangeable Asian Cultures and Identical-Looking Asians. Non-Asians often refer to all people of South East Asian descent as being “Chinese”, even if they weren’t born there. The same applies to other Oriental phenomena.
• Historically, and especially during the 19th and 20th century, Westerners saw East Asia as the Yellow Peril. A group of people who had strange and frightening traditions and could not be trusted in any way. The Japanese involvement in World War II and China becoming a Communist country in 1949 hardly diminished this fear. The oldest threat however, remains the Japanese and Chinese economic growth. Western colonials surpressed it for most of the centuries, but since the second half of the 20th century it became very current again.
• Yellow Face: Racial stereotypes associated with South East Asians are:
  • Jokes about their typical eye shape. People from a different race will often mock it by stretching their own eyes with both index fingers and take on a goofy, cross-eyed expression, complete with imbecilic grin. Derigatory terms like “slant eyes” and “slitty eyes” are also derived from this.
    • Another stereotype derived from this is their supposed lack of peripheral vision (which attributes to yet another stereotype: their ””bad driving””).
  • Another racist image is the East Asian with buck teeth, long fingernails and co*ke bottle glasses. The “very bad teeth” thing is still very much in play. Not only has orthodontics only recently started to catch on, but females with crooked teeth are actually considered kawaii for supposedly having the crooked teeth of a grade school kid. Braces, as a result, are not nearly as prevalent as they are in North America.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: They often speak Engrish, replacing the letters “l” and “r” with each other. Or gibberish with many words that rhyme with “-ng”-sounds, like Ching Chong.
• Asian Rudeness: To westerners Asians may come across as being impolite, impatient and always talking loudly and sharply to everyone. This is usually stereotyped by having an Asian shout untranslated gibberish while Westerns stand by bewildered. This stereotype is mostly derived from the fact Chinese culture in particular values bluntness and that many Asian languages apply different tone and meter to articulate certain words and sentences.
• All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Expect every Asian to wear a conical straw hat on his head.
• When they travel it will be by boat, either a sampan, junk, catamaran or a maru. They will be fishing and use the ship as a house too.
• Inscrutable Oriental: Asians are often portrayed as mysterious people who don’t express their emotions or opinions and just seem to stand by and observe. This causes distress or nervousness with people from other races who are unable to tell what these mysterious people are up to? When they speak, they will always mumble seemingly deep and confusing aphorisms and Ice-cream koans.

  • A subtrope of this stereotype is the Magical Asian, a doctor or physician who conducts strange rituals and brews weird medicines and poisons.
  • The most negative subtrope of this stereotype is the Asian executioner, who sad*stically torments his victims for hours and days, while remaining unnerved by the pain he causes unto others.

  • In high contrast with their “emotionless” image Asians are also often seen as a bunch of imbecilic grinning and giggling people. See also Asian Airhead.
  • All Asians showcase tremendous respect to their ancestors.
  • All Asians are submissive and bow a lot, especially women and especially Japanese. Unless you insult them, because then they will showcase Asian Rudeness or martial skills.
  • All Asians Know Martial Arts: Whenever an Asian appears in popular culture he or she is always an expert in martial arts. (S)he will jump, kick and hit others at break neck speed while making Funny Bruce Lee Noises. Not only that, but when (s)he encounters other Asians in the streets they too join in the fight, leading to Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting. May overlap with Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy.
    • Also, different martial arts traditions from different Asian countries will often be confused with each other. For the record: Judo, Aikido, Sumo, Jiujitsu, Ninjutsu, Kenpo and Karate are Japanese. Kung fu, Jeet kune do, and Tai chi are Chinese. Taekwondo, Hapkido and Taekkyeon are Korean.
• Asian men have their own set of stereotypes:
  • Asian and Nerdy: Asian men are often stereotyped as small, weak and pathetic nerds. They will usually be math or computer experts. If they are first-generation immigrants, they are also bound to be extremely demanding to their children and having absurdly high expectations, especially regarding education. Found, for example, in Wayne’s World and made popular by this meme. They will also be ridiculed for having small genitals.
  • Whenever a strong and actually sexy Asian man is portrayed he will usually be a martial arts expert.
  • Old Asian people are usually wise, bearded men who, again speak in aphorisms, teach martial arts and are forever trying to calm down their young, enthusiastic students. They will be a Magical Asian or a medical expert. When they are not teaching they’ll be meditating or singing an Asian Rune Chant.
  • Asian Store-Owner: Asians will be owners of grocery stores.
• Asian women also have their set of stereotypes:
  • Young East Asian women are usually portrayed as mysterious attractive and exotic dancers, masseuses, manicurists, geishas or prostitutes. They are often depicted as being very submissive, yet delicate flowers. Of course, they will be experts in unusual or exotic sexual techniques.
    • Dragon Lady: Somewhat a subtrope of the exotic and erotic young Asian female, only this stereotype is not to be trusted at all. She will use her beauty and sexual techniques to exploit or manipulate men.
    • AsianHooker: Another subtrope, where stock expressions like ””me love you long time”” will be uttered.
    • Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: What makes these submissive Asian female stereotypes especially simplistic is the ignorance of the Westerners who use them. For instance: geishas will be pigeonholed as prostitutes, while their actual activities are far more complex than simply giving men sexual pleasure. Also, they forget that you can’t be a proper East Asian woman without a spine of your own. It’s apparent that people who still use this stereotype today are unaware of ‘Raise The Red Lantern” or any novel written by any female Chinese novelist in the past thirty years.
    • Still, the “submissive East Asian woman” stereotype is not simply a Western idea. They can also be seen and heard in many East Asian films and animated cartoons, where these girls tend to talk and moan in a very high pitched squeaking voice, always accentuating their own weaknesses and reservations. Especially during erotic scenes.
  • Asian Baby Mama: An out-dated stereotype, mostly associated with Westerners having an affair with Asian women, resulting in pregnancy afterwards and the man fleeing back to the West.
  • Asian Airhead: Young Asian girls will be stereotyped as giggling idiots.
• Asian cuisine is also subject to stereotypical ideas. Most of the time they will eat nothing but rice, noodles and soja sauce and preferably use sticks instead of knife and fork. Apart from that they will enjoy sea food, such as sushi, fish eggs and whales. Chinese delicacies like thousand-year-old egg and bird nest soup are well-known among Westerners, and Koreans are said to favour kimchi and dog meat.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang is often used to portray an Oriental atmosphere. Some Asian string instruments will do the trick too.
• Every cheap and dangerous product will always be made in Eastern Asia, usually by slave laborers, before being sent to the Western World: “Made in Korea”, “Made in Hong Kong”, “Made in Taiwan”,…

China

• The Chinese have been stereotyped as if they still live in the days of Imperial China. They wear douli on their head, long pigtails and keep their hands hidden in long robes. They enjoy walking in queus behind each other, sometimes dressed up as a Chinese dragon. The men have long beards and moustaches, while the women suffer terrible pain because of the foot binding tradition. A reference to mandarins and their Emperor will be made, despite the fact that The Last Emperor was forced into abdication in 1911. Many of these images are influenced by Dream of the Red Chamber, The Nightingale, Turandot and countless Wuxia movies.
  • Other stereotypes from this time period are throwing babies in the river, extreme animal abuse, lighting fireworks during Chinese new year, Chinese dragons, Chinese opera, Chinese acrobatics and the games ping pong, go, mah-jong and Chinese chess and checkers.
  • The Chinese are also pioneers of invention: paper, ink, gun powder, fireworks, the compass, the wheel barrow, the printing press, windmills, paper money,… and were pioneers in clock making, hydraulica, astronomy, shipping, farming, music theory, military science,… Throughout history they were famous for making silk, vases and porcelain.
  • Chinese philosophy is famous too: Confucianism, Taoism, Feng Shui, Yin and Yang, the I-Ching,… This again leads to the idea that Chinese mainly speak in aphorisms.
• The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, the Tian An Men Square and the Shaolin Temple will be shown or visited at one point. And don’t try to show Beijing without bringing bicyclists in view. Visiting Shanghai without being shanghaied is less difficult.
• A popular stereotype is the insanely intelligent and evil Chinese villain with a beard or long Fu Manchu style moustache. He often practices Ancient Chinese torture methods like slow slicing and the Chinese water torture. (Examples: Fu Manchu, Li Shoon, Dr.No.) The female counterpart is the Dragon Lady, who will always wear a Qipao dress.
  • Chinese also form secret societies (The Triads and the Tongs).
    • All Chinese organisations, temples, societies,… have the word “lotus”, “jade” or “snow flower” in them.
• A more gentle stereotype is the Chinese doctor or pharmacist who uses strange rituals, drinks and techniques to cure his patient. Often he is a practitioner of acupuncture. See Magical Asian.
• In westerns and comic strips Chinese people were often depicted as proprietors of laundries, opium dens or simply cheap workers.
• More modern stereotypes about China are basically referencing Red China. During the 1960s and 1970s the Chinese were portrayed as sexless, androgynous, personality-free Mao freaks who dress in the same blue uniforms and whose lives are centered on The Little Red Book and overly complicated bureaucracy. They will ban a lot of Western stuff (There’s a reason why the TV tropes article about censorship in universal countries is called Banned in China.). Tibet will remain occupied as far as they are concerned.
  • Chinese with Chopper Support: The Chinese military is basically people in helicopters.
  • Another stereotype derived from Red China is the overpopulation. Ever since Mao told all Chinese parents to produce as many children as they could the population quickly rose out of hand. Today a billion (!) people live in China. That’s right, one billion of the seven billion people on Earth reside in China. To get things back under control the Chinese government then issued a “one family, one child” policy, which unfortunately lead to parents killing their infant if it was a girl. So, the government tried to campaign daughters in a more positive light since then.
• In the rest of the world the Chinese are mainly seen as restaurant owners, cooking several rice products and handing out fortune cookies.
  • The Chinese also eat a lot more different animals than in other cultures. This has lead to the stereotype that the Chinese will eat anything.
• When attempting to demonstrate Chinese might/threat, there is always this giant dragon with big, fat “CHINA” written on its body which design shows absolutely no attempt to note that Chinese dragons and Western ones are not the same at all. Then again, it’s all propaganda…
• All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: When you’re Chinese: you know kung fu and tai chi.
• In (beat ‘em up) videogames, Chinese characters are unsurprisingly numerous. Both sexes are nearly always clad in period costume – Mao collars, Qipao (for the women) and Odango – double for females, single for males. Chinese female characters are nearly always portrayed as heroic, alluring, either very sexy or very cute and highly proficient at the more acrobatic, elegant forms of Kung Fu, a depiction no doubt inspired by the original, pioneering video games Action Girl, Chun Li of Street Fighter fame. Other female examples who follow this theme include Xianghua and her daughter Leixia from the Soul Series, qipao-clad Leifang from Dead or Alive, Li Xiangfei from The King of Fighters (who’s a little “wackier” than previous examples but still fits), Litchi Faye-Ling from BlazBlue and kung fu movie actress Pai Chan from Virtua Fighter.
  • Chinese male beat ‘em up characters generally come in one of two flavours. There’s the wise, bearded Old Master type, who’s ancient age hides his incredible skill, with examples including Gen of Street Fighter fame, drunken fighters Shun Di and Chin Gentsai from Virtua Fighter and The King of Fighters respectively, Tung Fu Rue from Fatal Fury and Wang Jinrei from Tekken. The other popular Chinese male depiction is the straight up Bruce Lee Clone, as seen with Fei Long of Street Fighter fame, Marshall Law from Tekken, Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat, a medieval version with Li Long from the Soul Series and Jann Lee from Dead or Alive.
• More recent portrayals seem to indicate that the Chinese might be taking over the ruthless businessman role from the Japanese in Hollywood films. In fact, a growing number of modern works have the Corrupt Corporate Executive or the villain pulling the strings to be a gaunt, middle-aged Chinese man with high cheekbones who cares more about money than human life. This may be due to American fear and resentment over China’s growing importance in the world and economic power, and all the debt the US owes them. “China still cool! You pay later!” Actually Chinese seen the first part of the sentence as Truth in Television; in The New Tens they started to wonder if have been too much of a Combat Pragmatist…
• Between the Special Administrative Regions and the Mainland China there is also stereotyping between both sides, Mainland China views the average SAR citizens (Hong Kong for example) as impatient, unpatriotic, classist, brash and complete workaholics, while Mainlanders are seen as moody and spoiled due to several policies in China (namely the one child policy), as well as extremely rude (thanks to a dog-eat-dog culture in certain areas of China stemming from government overhauls)
• All cheap products are “made in China.”
• Animals able to provide a specific Chinese atmosphere are panda bears and cranes. And a Chinese dragon as well, of course.
• Chinese music consists mostly of people playing an erhu.
• And who could forget the ancient urban legend that if you would dig a hole in the Northern hemisphere and continue digging you would eventually end up in China?

Hong Kong

• A big, modernized city full of tourists.
• In the years when Hong Kong was a British colony the Kowloon Walled City had an infamous reputation for being an overpopulated den of lawfulness with brothels, opium dens and bad or unlicensed doctors and dentists. The Triads and the Tongs ruled the place up until 1993, when everything was demolished.
• Martial Arts Movie: Since the 1960s and 1970s Hong Kong is best known for their large film industry based on martial arts pictures. All these films will have a Bruce Lee Clone fighting off other people in long, intense and sometimes gravity defying choreographed scenes that take up several minutes of screen time. When shown in the USA these pictures will have bad English dubbing (Hong Kong Dub).
• Hong Kong is likely to be filled with masseusses who will step on your back and give “happy endings” if you pay them enough.
• Lots of dead chickens hanging in the windows and lots of old ladies willing to behead any live chickens they get.
• A hot-spot for wealthy business men (both Asian and White) to visit and “relax”.
• Extremely brash and impatient by Asian standards, filled with shopkeepers and passerby who will kick your ass for trying to ask for help. This is somewhat true, as shopkeepers in China are less picky about their customers than in America.
• Cheap products will all be “Made in Hong Kong”.

Japan

• Japanese people are often represented as extremely polite (Japanese Politeness), intelligent, and obedient but dislike foreigners. They bow extensively and are ruthless, stoic business people wearing glasses and black suits. Their stock expressions are: “hai!”, “sayanora!”, “banzai!”, “honorable”, “regrettable”, “ooooh so sorry, me so sorry” and “please” (usually spoken in an Engrish or Japanese Ranguage accent).
• The Japanese are often seen as extreme workaholics who never take time off and always try to be as good as they possibly can. Either at school, at work or at home. This comes into sharp contrast with their Real Life custom of spending for luxury and Conspicuous Consumption, mostly because unlike NewRussians or Arabs, Japanese don’t brag.
  • Might also be part of Japan Takes Over the World.
• The cheerful Japanese Tourist who films and photographs everything in sight. This has waned since the Japanese economic bubble burst, but still visible in works from the 80s and early 90s.
• The overweight sumo wrestler.
• The cute and sexy girl in school uniform. (See Joshikousei and Asian Airhead)
• The Yakuza is the Japanese equivalent of The Mafia and will thus be seen in many gangster stories.
• Japanese also have a reputation for honorable suicides, ranging from hara-kiri, seppuku to kamikaze pilots.
• Imperial Japan: Certain Japanese stereotypes are still derived from this time period with the Samurai, Ronin, Geisha and the Ninja as the most iconic examples. Activities like calligraphy, Japanese water painting, origami, flower arranging, haiku writing, tea ceremonies, kabuki plays, playing the gong, gardening… are also associated with this time period, though still in vogue today. The Emperor of Japan is also a stock character here. The image is mostly fed from countless stories and films in these settings, including the films of Akira Kurosawa.
• All Japanese houses are either pagodes or shojis with paper thin walls, tatami floor mats and fusuma doors that you can slide open.
  • Some essential locations to bring in viewpoint when visiting Japan: the Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Gardens, the Itsukushima shrine and the Meiji shrine.
• Japan’s involvement in WorldWarTwo also lead to a number of stereotypes: the stern and merciless Japanese officer, the sad*stic soldiers, gruesome medical experiments in death camps, kamikaze pilots flying to their death, … For many older British and American people this is the cultural referent. Ask a member of the Burma Star Association (war veteran) for his opinion of the Japanese as a people, and the reference points will be savagery, fanaticism, vicious cruelty to prisoners, racial superiority, and so on. Although this wholly negative perception is fading with the generation that fought WW2 or were prisoners in Japanese death camps.
  • Since Japan was victim of two atomic bomb attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki expect many of their drama stories to be directly or indirectly referencing these tragic events. It remains a heavy subject there.
• Japanese popular culture often baffles other countries:
  • Japanese comic strips (manga), animated cartoons (anime), computer games, horror and action films are often criticized for being disturbingly dark, complex, bizarre and violent. Often there is a strange contrast between cutesy sing-a-long themes, fluffy happy characters (think Hello Kitty) and incredibly painful violence. Frequently a scene will be interrupted for a long musical number, sang by twin fairies. Characters will also morph into new omni-powerful lifeforms for reasons that are difficult to grasp, but nevertheless awesome to look at.
  • Their gameshows are notoriously surreal and sad*stic.
  • Their anime is often ridiculed. Non-anime fans seem to think Japanese cartoons are still at the quality of Speed Racer and full of giant robots flying around. Characters simply freeze in one position while a vague background goes by. You seldom see a realistic Asian in their cartoons: always white people with very wide eyes. Also, many will simply be thinly veiled toy commercials and have so many flashy scenes that they cause epileptic seizures.
    • Also, All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles or disturbing rape and/or pedophilia induced hentai.
  • The kaiju films are ridiculed for their bad special effects: men wearing rubber monster suits. The plots are surreal and consist of nothing more than Godzilla fighting other monsters for no particular reason.
  • Their instruction videos and commercials are equally weird. Many famous Hollywood actors make TV commercials in Japan (Japandering) and these videos have become notorious because they often put celebrities in a weird context that doesn’t have anything to do with their public image. For decades these commercials remained mostly unknown to Western audiences, but since the arrival of Internet their notability has increased, often to the shame of the actors themselves.
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Much like New-York and Los Angeles in Hollywood films Tokio will be the most prominent location in Japanese popular culture.
• In (beat ‘em up) video games, Japanese characters run the full gamut of character types (unsusprisingly, seeing as how most series have multiple Japanese characters), but the most popular depictions include the stoic, brooding hero type (often wrestling with some sort of inner turmoil) — as seen with Street Fighter‘s Ryu and Tekken‘s Jin; various boisterous bruisers (often Sumo wrestlers), as seen with Street Fighter‘s E.Honda, Tekken‘s Ganryu and Virtua Fighter‘s Taka-arashi; and finally the archetypal spirited, plucky school girl type, as seen with Sakura of Street Fighter fame, Hinata from Rival Schools, Asuka Kazama of Tekken fame and school-girl turned Magic Idol Singer Athena Asamiya from The King of Fighters.
• Japanese people are engineering geniuses, but they use this to create giant robots and very odd inventions, like square melons and toilets that produce fountains and play music.
  • Japan also managed to provide some universally famous products like Nintendo, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hello Kitty. Expect a Japanese character in popular culture to do a shout out to any of these products at one point.
• Specific Japanese dishes that will be referenced are octopus (usually alive), whale meat, sushi, fugu, sukiyaki, saké and wasabi.
• A more negative stereotype is the perverted Japanese man who is a Nightmare Fetishist and possible pedophile. And also completely unwilling to reproduce or sexually regressive.
• Japanese people add “-u” to the end of every word. (This, of course, comes from katakana.)
• Oddly, the Ainu get more press in America than in Japan.
• In Japan itself, there’s the stereotype of The Idiot from Osaka. It takes several different “shapes”: an Osakanite can be seen as either an obnoxious prankster who never takes anything seriously, a Boisterous Bruiser who will punch first and ask what’s going on next, a money-grubbing workaholic, or as a person who’s somewhat… odd
• Among the Asians themselves, Japan is often viewed as an Asian version of the Confederate South in the USA. They have a similar “The South Will Rise Again” mentality as the American Southern States, with an unhealthy longing to the good old days of an absolute ruler.
• Since Japan has a very recognizable flag expect references to the “Rising Sun” to be made whenever the country is mentioned in fiction.

South Korea

• South Koreans are fanatical video game nerds who will kick your ass at any Blizzard game or Counter-Strike.
  • Marriage culture: You want to marry a S. Korean girl, you have to defeat her father in StarCraft II
• Also, dry cleaning. More than a few Korean immigrants have had dry cleaning as their first job in the United States. Several catalogs even have a specialized Korean-language line to dial.
• Koreans are not generally seen as distinct from Chinese or Japanese (see Interchangeable Asian Cultures); when they are, they get a similar treatment to the Japanese as stereotypical businessmen who are reserved and extremely polite. Korean women will probably be war brides or prostitutes. Most North Americans know of The Korean War from Mash and may forget that Western involvement ended over half a century ago; especially dumb Americans may confuse it with The Vietnam War and assume it happened in the 1970s or later. Despite its strong economic growth, there is no equivalent to Japan Takes Over the World although certain elements of Korean pop culture (music, soap operas etc.) have become popular overseas. There may be some reference to North Korean belligerence making everyone tense.
• Koreans are the only East Asian ethnicity to generally be portrayed as Christian, although other Asian countries (the Philippines, East Timor, Georgia and Armenia) also have people of this religion. Not exactly helped by the fame of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, nor by how South Korea is among the few countries in their geopolitical sphere to have a significant Christian minority (with Presbiterian and Roman Catholic former Presidents, too.)
• Korean food consists of rice, dog meat and kimchi. No exceptions.
  • Though nicer works tend to play up the gogigui, or Korean barbecue. Some even say it’s equal to, if not better than the (stereotypical) capital of barbeque itself, the United States of America.
• It’s a bit of a stereotype in the Asian-American community that Koreans, especially the women, are really into plastic surgery. This is a stereotype inside the country itself – thanks to the uptick of more and more prosperity, there is a trend of materialism and an obsession with beauty, to the point of makeup being marketed toward men and teenagers getting surgery.
• The internet front has Netizen, which are often treated as a South Korean exclusive thing that puts most internet activists to shame in terms of a Internet Counterattack. Think of them as the exact opposite of a Reddit social justice warrior, extremely conservative beliefs as they spend most of their time in internet cafes espousing on their beliefs and vicious use of the upvote/downvote system.

North Korea

• North Koreans are Dirty Communists who have been brainwashed to talk about how great their Dear Leader is and view him as a Physical God. Everything foreign is banned there and the people live in complete oblivion of the rest of the world. See People’s Republic of Tyranny.
• North Koreans with Nodongs: For Hollywood’s purposes, North Korea seems to have replaced the Soviet Union as the default enemy country of the U.S. This often involves North Korea being portrayed as vastly more powerful and technologically advanced than it really is, in a manner similar to the Soviet Superscience trope.
• South Koreans stereotype North Korean defectors the way many countries stereotype poor unwanted immigrants, i.e. as an uneducated criminal class. Yes, discrimination is a problem. Many North Koreans living in South Korea try to lose their northern accents.
• North Korean women are considered to be more submissive and traditional than their South Korean counterparts. Feminism, of course, never made it across the DMZ. Some South Korean men seek out Northern women for this reason, viewing Southern women as too spoiled and judgemental.

Taiwan

• The Taiwanese really only have two stereotypes; they are either rage-filled bad drivers who are obsessed with betel nuts or otakus who write way too many doujins.
• Also, every Taiwanese person on the internet seems to know every other Taiwanese person. This is somewhat true, as the internet community on Taiwan is somewhat tight-knit, a consequence of being tiny.
• Although most Taiwanese are of Han Chinese ethnicity, they are treated as essentially Japanese in culture (probably stemming from being ruled by Japan for about 50 years until the end of World War Two and having the least bad overall attitude about the country in Asia, as well as having taken on some Japanese culture from the occupation).
• Taiwan may be confused with Hong Kong; there will be taxis, 24-hour laundries and teahouses where old men sit playing mah jong all day long. Traditional Chinese music will be heard.
• And every cheap product is of course “made in Taiwan”.
• Many Americans don’t differentiate Taiwanese people from the Chinese in terms of perception.

Macau

• Described as Las Vegas in Asia. This isn’t far off the mark.
• Hong Kongers deride Macanese for being poorer than them.

Mongolia

• Bring up Mongolia and come up with Genghis Khan and The Horde.
• Chinese see Mongols as poor wretches deserving Chinese annexation.
• Russians—and to a lesser extent, other nationalities in the CIS—often see Mongolians as Asian Russians, since some minorities (like the Buryat people) are a Mongol subgroup and share some language and culture.

Tibet

• The Shangri-La to the extremes. Most people are Buddhist monks. Oppressed and spiritual, and peaceful, never mind that the Tibetans had a martial tradition as well. The Himalaya will be seen as well, so mountain climbers will also appear at one point. Also expect the Dalai Lama and/or The Abominable Snowman to make a cameo.
• In more politically motivated works, Tibet may be portrayed as a Commie Land. Tibetan Buddhism will be the Good Old Ways, and its suppression under modern communism may be portrayed with a touch of The Magic Goes Away.

Southeast Asia In popular culture, Southeast Asia is that place where the Vietnam War happened. It did not exist before then, nor did it have a culture except for mysterious statues of Buddhas and ruined temples half-hidden by jungle overgrowth. Everyone wears those conical hats and is a peasant, drug trafficker or ex-guerrilla. All Western tourists who go there will be caught up in some sort of scam or civil war or be imprisoned on trumped-up charges (usually drug trafficking). See: Holiday in Cambodia. Vietnam

• Vietnam is “the country where that war happened”. Period. They are Dirty Commies who wield AK-47s and live in underground tunnels from which they shoot at American soldiers. If captured, expect the white heroes to be subjected to all sorts of cruel tortures. Alternatively, there will be a Den of Iniquity where a short, stocky Vietnamese man shouts and forces captives to play Russian roulette. Vietnamese people are either farmers or draftsmen when they are not mercenaries, and the women are all prostitutes without exception.
• In popular culture Vietnam will only be used to show Vietnamese or American soldiers. That the country used to be a French colony is almost never mentioned.
• Vietnamese cuisine is one of the few positive images the world knows about the country.

Thailand

• In the past it was known as Siam and some of those historical time era clichés are still associated with the country, like the King of Siam and his multiple children, the city Angkor, Siamese twins and Siamese cats.
• Since being renamed as Thailand it is predominantly known for the capital city Bangkok, which is universally portrayed as a Wretched Hive full of seedy bars, strip clubs and brothels. There will be some mention of kathoey (“ladyboys”), possibly leading to Viewer Gender Confusion. If some other part of Thailand is shown, it will probably be a rubber plantation with elephants and palm trees everywhere, or a beach where Westerners go to live in wooden houses on stilts and surf. There will still be drugs and prostitutes, though.
• Expect Thai massage, Thai dancing and/or Thai boxing (Muay Thai)to be depicted as if they are general activities every Thai does.
• If Thai characters do turn up in Fighting Games, then they are almost universally portrayed as boastful, morally dubious (if not downright evil) Muay Thai boxers. Examples include Sagat and Adon, both Street Fighter veterans, Hwa Jai from Fatal Fury (complete with snake oil booze power-up moves) and Shura from World Heroes. This may stem from the fact that Muay Thai is brutal.

Laos

• When it exists, is identical to Thailand despite being landlocked. The Souphanousinphones from King of the Hill are one of the few realistic portrayals of a Lao family that will be familiar to Western viewers.

Cambodia

• Is the place where the Khmer Rouge took over. Virtually everything about Cambodia is known from the film The Killing Fields, which means it is a poor jungle country overrun by Communist guerillas and anti-Western fanatics who force their captives to do hard labour at gunpoint and starve. Phnom Penh is a fairly modern French-style city, but everything else is wilderness.
• See also: Holiday in Cambodia.

Burma

• Similar stereotypes to Cambodia (see The Bridge on the River Kwai for a major example) with the exception of being more devoutly Buddhist. The Burmese are either saffron-robed monks, armed revolutionaries or oppressed city folk. Unfortunately, this one is closer to Truth in Television.

The Philippines

• Best known in popular culture for its capital Manila.
• Filipinos tend to be constantly confused with Hispanics, because not all of the population is of Asian race. Filipino women tend to be seen as slu*ts or mail-order brides. Then there are all the jokes about Filipino foreign workers caricatured as being practically everywhere.
  • One thing the country will never live down is Imelda Marcos’ obsession with shoes.
• Negative perceptions of Filipinos characterize them as lazy, gluttonous, and heavy drinkers, who has the most number of holidays in the world. They tend to leave their jobs undone ( while uttering “bahala na sa diyos” meaning “leave it all to God”) and instead prefer to drink alcohol and eat roasted pig. The positive side of this stereotype portrays them as pleasure lovers with an optimistic outlook on life.
• Whenever American media shows a white gay male with a “foreign” lover, it’s almost always a Filipino man. Also, like Thailand, many of the prostitutes are thought to be MtF transsexuals.
• Either a lot of nurses are Filipino women, or a lot of Filipino women are nurses. Stand up comedian Jo Koy:

  Jo koy: how many Filipinos are here?

  (crowd cheering)

  Jo koy: that’s a lot of Filipinos. somewhere in L.A there’s an empty hospital.

• The Philippines are also known for being more fluent in English than other Asian countries. Probably because of the history of the country being colonized by both Spain and U.S.A. This led to many foreign students from many parts of the world (specifically from Europe and other Asian countries) to study in the Philippines (all just to learn proper English without the Engrish accent).
• Filipinos are violent knife / stick fighters, an example of Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting. In modern views, they tend to be seen as deadly boxers (seen with Manny Pacquiao and Thrilla in Manila) and powerful fist fighters. In the army they are Filipinos with Firearms.
  • In (beat ‘em up) videogames, Filipino characters are described as above. Example is Talim in Soul Calibur
• Also most Filipinos are very, very, very Catholic. But a lot of them are also Muslims.
• For Malaysian and Singaporean eyes, Filipinos are nothing more than maids. In many films from Singapore there’s a Filipino maid stereotype depicted as young and often uneducated. This hasn’t gone without criticism. Just ask Devina Devida.

Indonesia

• Stereotyped in the West as fanatical Muslims, even though Indonesian Islam is rather relatively moderate until recently.
• If the maids in Hong Kong and Singapore are not Filipinos, then they must be Indonesian.
• All Indonesian men wear a songkok hat or a blangkon headgear. The cloth will be batik, ikat or songket.
• All houses are built on stilts.
• Historically, Indonesia is best remembered for its Dutch colonial history, exemplified in the Dutch literary classic Max Havelaar.
• Indonesian culture is famous for its dances and shadow puppet theatre.
• The martial art “silat” is also something unique to the country.
• Indonesia is also known for its volcanic islands, like the most infamous one: Krakatoa.
• The most famous Indonesian isle is Java, best known for the “Java Man”, Javan coffee and tea and various unique animal species.
• Another famous isle is Bali, best known for its percussion orchestra gamelan music, dances and, recently, as the location for the “love” part of the book Eat, Pray, Love.
• Some Komodo dragons and the Javan hawk-eagle will make a cameo too.

Malaysia

• In the West, they are a more refined version of the Indonesians, and richer.
• Also in works concerning Malaysia, expect the Petronas Towers to crop up.

Brunei

• Basically they are an even more refined version of Malaysian stereotypes.
• Being an oil-producing Islamic monarchy, the stereotypes of Gulf Arab states are also put into Brunei.

East Timor

• East Timor’s portrayal in fiction is rare and if does crop up, expect poverty, gang violence, and ethnic violence as common cliches.

Singapore

• Stereotypes of Chinese people apply to Singapore, being a majority-Chinese nation.
• Singaporeans are stereotyped by other Asians as arrogant know-it-alls and would punish anyone who chews chewing gum or smokes in public.
• Singapore is also known for being a pirate’s nest.

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